Preliminary reports suggest that Jonny Wilkinson’s knee injury is not as bad as first thought, his club, Newcastle, said on Monday in a statement.
Wilkinson was carried from the field just 34 minutes into his comeback match for Newcastle against Premiership opponents Harlequins on Sunday.
The England flyhalf was returning after a nine-week break recovering from an injury to the same left knee against Perpignan in the European Cup.
Newcastle said the injury involved the medial ligament of the left knee, which was injured before, and added Wilkinson is now awaiting comparisons to be made between the old and the new injury scans.
The club added that it will need to take a few days to allow the symptoms to die down before assessing exactly where he stands.
Newcastle director of rugby Rob Andrew said: ”An injury is never good news, but this could have been so much worse, so there is some sense of relief.
”Jonny has shown in recent years that he has the strength of character to get over a blow such as this, and I am sure he will return stronger than ever, such is his amazing determination.
”We won’t be making any comments at this stage as to when Jonny might return, but we are just thankful that there is no damage to his anterior cruciate ligament, which would have meant a much longer period out of the game.”
England’s World Cup hero had kicked two penalties and a conversion at Harlequins’ ground, The Stoop, just down the road from Twickenham, where his side lost 39-23, before he was injured making a tackle.
He was laid flat out on the turf and eventually had to be helped off the pitch and into the dressing-rooms.
Injuries to his shoulder, neck, bicep and knee have prevented Wilkinson from playing for England since the 2003 World Cup final against Australia and led him to miss out on captaining the side even though he was the first choice of coach Andy Robinson, who took over last year, for the job.
There had been speculation that Wilkinson, England’s record points-scorer with 817 points from 52 Tests, might be recalled to the Test squad ahead of the world champions’ final Six Nations match against Scotland in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham.
But with that prospect now gone, Wilkinson’s next target will be Newcastle’s European Cup quarterfinal against Stade Francais on April 2.
However, his chances of playing in that match are now receding while any lingering hopes of him featuring in the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand — where the first Test of three takes place on June 25, in Christchurch — will have been severely diminished by this latest injury setback.
Indeed, Wilkinson’s ongoing fitness problems are bound to reopen the debate on whether he will be able to make a sustained return to top-class rugby at all, although at 25, the stand-off still has time on his side. — Sapa-AFP