BOURNVILLE Head Coach Alex Grove hopes that a blank weekend for Regional One Midlands clubs will help to ease the injury list at Avery Fields.
Bourns have been hard-hit by injuries in the first month of the new season, particularly in the back five, where Mauro and Miller Adam Collingwood are the only players to have started in the three league games to date.
Collingwood joined from Kenilworth in the summer as a scrum-half but has so far played all his competitive rugby this season either on the wing or in the centre, with Miller, another new recruit, playing at both wing and full-back.
Wing Cam Smith, who suffered a broken left arm in last Saturday’s victory over Stourbridge, has undergone surgery and will be sidelined for between four and five months while centre Sam Grimshaw, who sustained a knee ligament injury against Nuneaton in the season opener, currently has his right leg in a brace and is unlikely to return to action before the New Year.
But Josh Bloomfield, Grimshaw’s centre partner against Nuneaton before he suffered a knee injury, and back-row forwards George Jewell and Jasper Smith are all close to regaining fitness and could be in contention for selection when Bourns return to action with a first-ever visit from Gloucestershire club Drybrook on October 4.
“Josh might be a week or two away, Jasper Smith is probably there or thereabouts having suffered a calf injury against Silhillians in pre-season and then being unavailable,” Grove said.
“George Jewell suffered a knee injury against Bridgnorth and, although he could at a push have played against Stourbridge, he needed a week off really.
“I am pleased that he has had that plus another week with us not playing this weekend.
“Whilst the injury to Cam Smith is a serious one there are shoots of good news in that we do have people coming back.”
