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Gallagher-Prime Minister
Newcastle Red Bulls Chief Dan McFarland confirmed it England Scrum-half Raffi Quirke has been ruled out of the season opener against the reigning Gallagher PREM champions Northampton Saints at Franklin Gardens on Friday night.
RugbyPass understands that Quirke, who moved from Sale Sharks he damaged his knee ligaments this summer and that the club started looking for a potential replacement.
The news will come as a blow to Quirke, who suffered a series of hamstring and wrist injuries during his time at the Sharks and was hoping a move to the North East would kick-start his stalled international career.
Quirke, 25, has been called up to the England national team at a Nations Championship conflict with Argentina in the summer after Alex Mitchell suffered a hamstring injury and won the last of his two caps, scoring a try in a win over the Springboks in November 2021.
McFarland confirmed to RugbyPass on Monday afternoon that Quirke, who played in the pre-season game against Glasgow Warriors 10 days ago, will not be available to face the Saints, but did not say how serious the injury is.
“Raffi is not available yet at the moment. That is absolutely true. We have not released any injury news, but Rafi will not be considered for selection this week.”
“At the moment I’m not going to say (the extent of the injury). If that’s fine, but he won’t be available this week,” the new Red Bulls boss said in his weekly press conference.
McFarland, however, confirmed that his three new Argentina signings, stalwart Francisco Moreno, lock Franco Molina and fullback Benjamín Elizalde, plus scrum-half Simon Benitez-Cruz, have all arrived in the North East after international duty.
They too will be available to face the Saints and the news that Benitez-Cruz is fit will be a boost with Quirke unavailable and looking unlikely to be for the foreseeable future.