Martyn Williams' SA tour in doubt
Sat, 03 May 2008 13:52
Openside flank Martyn Williams could be the latest Grand Slam hero to be ruled out of the Welsh tour to South Africa after it emerged he is facing a six-week lay-off.
The news follows the withdrawal of Ospreys full-back Lee Byrne from the tour - he requires keyhole surgery on a knee problem and joins Gavin Henson, Mike Phillips, Dwayne Peel and Alix Popham on the sick list.
As for Williams, he twisted his knee in a collision during Cardiff Blues' Magners League tie at Connacht on Friday.
The veteran flank will undergo a scan on Monday to assess the extent of the damage.
But it is clear that he is facing huge odds to be fit in time to face the Springboks in June and at the very least he is almost certain to miss the training camp in Ireland next week.
Early indications were that Williams - a key part of the Six Nations success - will be out for as long as six weeks. And that would certainly count him out of the tour.
Blues coach Dai Young said: "It didn't look too good when Martyn came off. We'll have a much better idea after the scan and hopefully it's not as bad as first feared."
Only two weeks ago Williams was told by Warren Gatland he could carry on playing to the next World Cup and was included for next week's training camp in Ireland. But he limped off after just 11 minutes in Galway on Friday.
Williams said: "It was a pretty innocuous challenge. Someone fell into the side of me knee as I ran but I knew straight away that something had happened. We'll just have to wait and see."
It was a bruising night for Cardiff's international stars. Jamie Roberts received eight stitches to a head injury but is still expected to travel to Wexford on Monday with Wales. Lock Deiniol Jones also broke his nose.
But losing Williams, twice Man-of-the-Match during this year's Grand Slam, would be another hammer blow to Gatland's ambitions against the world champions.
Gatland has bemoaned the lack of natural successors to the British Lions back row. Add to that the fact that Gavin Henson, Mike Phillips and Mark Jones will all miss the tour, while Dwayne Peel and Shane Williams remain real doubts.
Wales depart for South Africa on Friday, May 30 before Tests at Bloemfontein on June 7 and Pretoria on June 14.
