Jon Welsh, the 25-year-old Glasgow Warriors prop, has been ruled out of the remaining two matches of Scotland’s tour of the South Pacific through injury. He will be replaced by his clubmate, Moray Low.
Welsh, who won his sole cap to date against Italy in the final game of the 2012 RBS 6 Nations Championship, suffered a recurrence of a shoulder problem during training at St Pius College, Oxford Falls today, on Scotland’s last day in Sydney before they fly to Fiji tomorrow.
Scotland team doctor James Robson explained: “Jon has had problems with his shoulder and today during a relatively innocuous tackle technique exercise he sustained a shoulder subluxation, where the shoulder partially dislocated from the joint.
“We were able to put it back in but I believed it was appropriate care for Jon to be scanned and the scan showed that the shoulder had sustained damage incompatible with the demands of international rugby and sadly he will take no further part in the tour.
“He will be reassessed on return home with a view to possible surgery.”
Scotland head coach Andy Robinson said: “We are all disappointed for Jon who has trained well and been a popular member of the squad. We wish him a speedy recovery.
“We are now making arrangements for Moray to fly out and he will join us in Fiji early next week.”
Low, 27, who won the last of his 15 caps in the EMC Test against Italy last year, has fought back from injury this season to be part of the Glasgow Warriors squad that reached the semi-final play-offs of the RaboDirect PRO12. He was last seen pulling giant fish out of the sea in Mexico, so at least will be acclimatised to the weather.
Meanwhile, flanker Alasdair Strokosch returned to team training today following the head wound he sustained amidst the celebrations at the 9-6 victory over the Wallabies on Tuesday in Newcastle.
Back Joe Ansbro (head wound) did not train today but showed visible signs of improvement as the swelling receded around his eye from the clash with the Big Stroker’s head.
Wing Sean Lamont (ribs) undertook a recovery session in the hotel swimming pool, while hooker Ross Ford did rehab running at the St Pius grounds. Full-back Stuart Hogg also was rested from training today on account of mild tendonitis.
2 Responses
That’s too bad for him. Hope he gets well soon and join the next Rugby Tours. Those tours are really great and it would be frustrating not to finish them all.
The Hootsman in their article stated that Welsh “has moved to Low’s tight head side of the scrum”. It would be interesting to know if this is just poor journalism and what they actually mean is that last season when Cusack and Low were injured Welsh covered on the TH side of the scrum, or if there is a planned and managed move to switch him from the LH to TH side. If this is a permanent move then that strikes me as a little strange. We’d then have Murray, Cross, Low and Welsh all competing for the No. 3 jersey and just Jacobsen and Grant on the LH side.