Baxter adds Salvi to the injury list

By Mark Stevens
27/10/16

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter delivered mixed news on the injury front during his weekly media session at Sandy Park today.

Highlighting that both Dave Ewers and Phil Dollman were close to competitive returns after knee and hand injuries, the news was somewhat curtailed with the fact that flanker Julian Salvi is now set for an extended period on the sidelines.

The Australian forward badly damaged his bicep during last weekend's European Champions Cup defeat at Ulster and is now set to undergo surgery in a bid to repair the damage.

Although Baxter could not give a definitive time frame as to how long the 31-year-old would be out at this stage, the loss of Salvi to the Chiefs cause will be another untimely blow with a number of frontline stars such as Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell, Don Armand, Matt Jess and Alec Hepburn all currently injured.

"Julian has a bicep injury of which we are still waiting to learn the full extent of that," said Baxter. "At this stage it looks a relatively serious one, so he's going to need surgery after which we'll know a little bit more.

"As for some of the other guys, Dave Ewers (pictured) is pretty close now. He's done pretty much a full week's training and we are now in the end stage of his rehab. We could push to get him available for this weekend - that's how close we are - but at the same time this is his first week of full loading and doing contact, so we'll need to see how he reacts to that if we are to manage it really well.

"I would like to think we will get some game time out of him in the upcoming Anglo-Welsh competition and it will be the same for Phil Dollman.

"Again Phil is very similiar to Dave in that he's had a full week of training, but we feel it's perhaps a little early to throw him straight into the Bath game."

The loss of Salvi, however, will be felt - on and off the field - and it's not just his solid defensive work that makes him a key component in the Exeter side.

Baxter explained: "First and foremost his biggest quality is his consistency. Even when we've had some poor performances or certain individuals have performed poorly, if you look at Julian's contribution it's always been first rate. His level of intensity he can bring consistently, week in week out, is outstanding.

"He is virtually always our top tackler, our top clear out guy, and what people probably don't realise is how important he is to our attack. A lot of people talk about open-sides being tacklers, defenders and destructive people, but Jules is very important to our attack as he clears so many breakdowns.

"He does put in a huge contribution over every 80 minutes and that's probably what we will miss most."