mens
Gallagher-Prime Minister
Bristol The Bears suffered a major blow ahead of Saturday night’s visit from the Gallagher PREM champions Northampton Saints, like England and Lions loosehead Ellis Genge will miss the game with a wrist injury.
Genge picked up the injury in the first minute of the 34-24 win over Sale Sharks in the season opener and played more than an hour before asking to be taken off.
Bears boss Pat Lam believes Genge, who played his first game of the season after an extended break following international duty in the summer, will only be out for two to three weeks.
“You could see in the first meeting of the game when we brought the ball down, and we had an incredible rush from our front five, which was Genji, Pedro (Rubiolo), (George) Kloska, Gab Oghre, they were all flying up.
“And Genji made the attack. I think it might have been Joe Carpenter. And he just grabbed his wrist in an awkward place, and you’d see him holding his arm. So he sprained his wrist doing that.”
“So he’s not going to be available this week, and as the game went on, he had trouble getting a grip. So he actually said he signaled that he’d be better off coming out in that second half.”
“At this stage, it’s a sprained wrist, so hopefully it’ll only keep him out for two or three weeks. We all know how difficult it is. Obviously, like any player, they’re frustrated with injuries, but there’s nothing you can do about it.
“He’s been in great form and he’s trained really well since he came back, and he was very ready to go, and he was a big part of that picture last week, but like any player, he was just frustrated, but when you accept that, which he did at the start of the week, and got the scan back, he just cracked.
“I’ve seen him run, and since it’s not long, he’ll be ready when he comes back,” Lahm said in his weekly press conference.