The Wales centre Gavin Henson, who has started only 11 matches in the last 12 months because of a succession of injuries, faces missing out on the Lions tour to South Africa after being told last night that ankle ligament damage he sustained playing for the Ospreys last weekend will rule him out of action for up to six weeks.
Henson is likely to be back in action again the weekend before the Lions gather for a week's bonding in Bagshot. The 27-year-old was helped off during the Ospreys' defeat by Gloucester in the EDF Energy Cup semi-final at the Ricoh Arena, a year after an injury to his left ankle required an operation and kept him on the sidelines for six months.
The Ospreys received the results of a scan last night and the region's physiotherapist, Chris Towers, said: "Gavin has suffered damage to the ligaments on both the lateral and medial sides of his right ankle. Although the injury is not so severe that he will require surgery, he will spend at least two weeks in a walking cast before he can start to gradually get back to normal activity. At this stage, in light of the nature and extent of the ligament damage, we are predicting a four-to-six-week spell on the sidelines before Gavin will be ready for action again."
The Lions manager, Gerald Davies, has said that the tourists will take only players who are fit. Henson is a far from automatic choice anyway, given his failure to string more than a few games together this season. When he returned from ankle surgery last October, an achilles tendon problem ruled him out of the autumn international series, after he had been chosen for the opening game against South Africa, and a calf strain forced him to withdraw from the start of Wales's Six Nations title defence in Scotland last February.
Henson will miss the Ospreys' Heineken Cup quarter-final against Munster at Thomond Park on April 12. If the six-week prognosis is correct, the only game he would be available for this season would be the region's Magner's League trip to Limerick in the middle of next month.
The Lions name their squad on 21 April. Henson went on the 2005 tour to New Zealand but played in only one Test and little has gone right for him since then, apart from the first few months of last year when he helped Wales to a second grand slam in four seasons. He missed the opening two games of this year's Six Nations before coming on as a replacement against France. He started against Italy and Ireland but launched a broadside against the tactics adopted by Wales after both matches and said their finishing position of fourth did not lie.
The Lions are bracing themselves for more bad news this week. The Gloucester and England centre Mike Tindall limped off at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry 10 minutes before Henson after injuring his right knee. The 30-year-old is due to have a scan today.
Like Henson he has a history of long-term injuries. While Tindall may not be a front-runner for a place in the Test side, with one Brian O'Driscoll standing ahead of him, the Lions coach, Ian McGeechan, places huge importance on players who are able to put disappointment to one side.
Whoever goes as the second outside-centre would be condemned to a supporting role, even if O'Driscoll were not made captain. Tindall, who missed out in 2005 because of injury and has never toured with the Lions, would be a contender to lead the midweek side and is one of the few players available to the Lions who has experience of beating South Africa. He would arguably be a bigger loss than Henson, while the Lions hope to find out in the next week whether Tindall's fellow 2003 World Cup winner, Jonny Wilkinson, will be fit for the tour after dislocating a kneecap six months ago.
