He probably takes less contact in an average game at No15, but if he's competing for high balls and landing hard I'd imagine he'd be more at risk than most with regards to his ankle; Ferris said that coming down from lineouts was the thing that was worst for his bad ankle [that was the injury that led to his retirement, rather than his knees]. Besides, Carbery has been pretty insistent that he wants to play No10.The Doc wrote:Hugo - do you think position has any part to play. If someone is "fragile" (or let's put it another way - is like a thoroughbred and needs to managed carefully), does the 10 vs 15 debate come back into it?hugonaut wrote: He has.
My point was that he is fragile - not a word any player wants to be damned with. But you can't avoid it when you look at his injury record.
2016-17 [ankle surgery - Dec 2016]
2017-18 [wrist surgery - Nov 2017]
2018-19 [hamstring - 11 weeks total, Feb-Apr]
2019-20 [ankle surgery, wrist surgery, ankle surgery - Aug 2019, Jan 2020, Feb 2020]
That's a hell of a lot of ankle and wrist injuries. There's not a huge amount of muscle around those joints to strengthen and stabilise them and take stress off the ligaments, so I am quite pessimistic about his chances of staying injury free in the future.
I always thought the added time at 15 allows him have a bigger impact - in some ways he was the best fullback Munster had. But do you think fullback might protect against the ankle / wrist injuries?
Maybe I'm wrong and he has just been unlucky with injuries thus far.