Buenos Aires: Wallabies prop Tom Robertson could miss next year’s Rugby World Cup after suffering a “significant” knee injury at training on Thursday in Buenos Aires.
While Robertson was not selected in Australia’s match day 23 to take on Argentina this weekend in Salta, he will face a nervous wait to find out the extent of an injury that occurred during a regular training run.
Tom Robertson could miss next year’s World Cup.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said the news did not look good for Robertson, who appeared to be in a fair amount of pain as he lay horizontal while being comforted by teammates.
“I'd say he's done a significant knee injury,” Cheika said. “I won't pre-empt scans or anything like that but it's not looking ideal. It was a very innocuous event, no contact, nothing, so it looks significant.
“There's no point sending him home yet. He'll stay with us for the trip and then when he gets home, he'll get the scans he needs and I imagine the operation he'll need after that.”
It would have been an uncomfortable plane trip for Robertson as the Wallabies left their base in Buenos Aires on Thursday afternoon local time to Salta, a small province in the northwest of Argentina.
With next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan just under 12 months away, if Robertson has torn his ACL there is a chance he won’t line up in a gold jersey for what would be a maiden World Cup for the 24-year-old.
The NSW Waratahs will also be nervous on the outcome of Robertson’s scans, but it is the Wallabies who have had terrible luck this year with injuries.
In the Rugby Championship alone, Taniela Tupou, David Pocock, Michael Hooper, Israel Folau and Tatafu Polota-Nau have been late scratchings after being named on the Thursday before a game.
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