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Injury blow for Wales as Josh Navidi ruled out for rest of World Cup

Wales will be without influential back-rower Josh Navidi for the remainder of the Rugby World Cup. T...
Neil Treacy
Neil Treacy

11:47 AM - 21 Oct 2019



Injury blow for Wales as Josh...

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Injury blow for Wales as Josh Navidi ruled out for rest of World Cup


Wales will be without influential back-rower Josh Navidi for the remainder of the Rugby World Cup.

The versatile Cardiff Blues forward has been sidelined for the World Cup semi-final, as well as the final or third-place-playoff, after suffering a hamstring injury in the first half of their narrow quarter-final win against France yesterday.

Navidi - who has won 22 of his 23 international caps in the last two years - had started four of their five games so far in the tournament, and will remain with the squad in a non-playing capacity for the next two weeks.

Head coach Warren Gatland will summon a replacement to join the 31 man group but is opting to bring a back rather than a forward, with both centres Hadleigh Parkes and Jonathan Davies carrying knocks into the week.

On Navidi's injury, Gatland says: "It’s disappointing for him (Navidi). We’ll keep him out here. It will be nice for him to stay out for the next couple of weeks. He’ll obviously lose his accreditation.

"It’s disappointing for us to have a player ruled out.

"In saying that, these games are so physical to have only lost one player is a real positive for us."

Ospreys centre Scott Williams ia being touted as the man to join the squad, but Gatland says no decision has been made just yet.

"He’s been having rugby and playing. We’ve got a meeting tonight to talk about who the potential replacement would be."

New Zealand has also been dealt with an injury blow.

The All Blacks will be without Matt Todd for this weekend's last four game with England.

The flanker - who scored a try off the bench in the hammering of Ireland - suffered a recurrence of a shoulder injury late in the game.

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Hadleigh Parkes Josh Navidi Rugby World Cup 2019 Scott Williams Wales Rugby Warren Gatland

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