Gloucester Rugby injury latest ahead of Bristol Bears: Val Rapava-Ruskin, Jamal Ford-Robinson
Gloucester Rugby head to Ashton Gate to take on Bristol Bears on Friday night with two of their primary frontrow forwards in doubt for the fixture.
First-choice loosehead prop Val Rapava-Ruskin pulled out late in the day before the Cherry and Whites’ 26-35 defeat to Saracens on Saturday with a knee complaint having missed nearly all of last season due to issues around that area of his body. The 31-year-old has now had two operations on his knee in the last 12 months to try and resolve the issue and made his playing return in Gloucester’s pre-season game against Edinburgh on September 13, coming through 40 minutes at the Hive Stadium well.
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However, just a couple of hours before kick-off in Round One of the Gallagher Premiership, the prop reported an issue with his other knee. Speaking to GloucestershireLive in his midweek press conference, Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington said: “Val's been assessed in the last 24 hours. It’s gutting he had to pull out of the game. Val's a big part of what we're trying to do here. We've invested a lot in him and obviously we didn't have him all of last year. It's very, very frustrating.
“It's very tough to deal with and I don't really know what's going on and the medics don't. We have to get to the bottom of this because we can't have the same thing happening what happened last year because it just tears up a lot of your plays. When you've got key players that you base a lot of things around and they pull out then it hurts you more than maybe someone else pulling out.
“For the respect of the club and the group I've got to make sure that we're not in this position week to week because if not you go mad.”
Gloucester were then hit with an unexpected second blow as prop when Jamal Ford-Robinson, who can play on both sides of the scrum, was taken to hospital on Sunday after waking up unable to talk or swallow. The former Bristol man spent the night in hospital before being released on Monday having had treatment.
Skivington said: “He got an infection in his throat, it might be his tonsils, something like that, it swelled up and he couldn't talk or breathe and obviously Jamal needs to talk so we needed to sort that out quickly. So he went into hospital, rushed him in, he ended up staying the night, had it drained, I think he might have had it drained again on Monday, some sort of abscess or something like that. But he'll be okay, he's just one of those random infections.
“He's out of hospital now. He's not in the club obviously., I'm going to see him tomorrow and then see where he's at as well.”
The good news for Gloucester is they still have Argentina international loosehead Mayco Vivas to take up the load at loosehead, with young Afolabi Fasogbon competing with Kirill Gotovtsev and summer signing Alfie Petch battling for two tighthead spots in the matchday 23. However behind Vivas, options in at loosehead are inexperienced at best, with former England 20s forward Archie McArthur next in line.
Skivington added: “We've got a couple of guys who can play both sides. I've got a couple of scenarios around Jamal and Val. There are some decisions I've got to make and then we'll see who comes through. We've got young guys like Archie McArthur who's an up-and-coming player, he played for Hartpury at the weekend. He's not got loads of Premiership experience but he's going to be a great player so potentially the opportunities will come for him.”