New South Wales Waratahs look set to be without Wycliff Palu for the rest of the season.
Super League outfit expecting the worse on backrower's injury
New South Wales Waratahs look set to be without Wycliff Palu for the rest of the season.
The 27-year-old Australian backrower sustained a knee injury during the Waratahs' 20-13 defeat to Canterbury Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday after falling awkwardly in the second-half.
Palu, who had only just re-signed with the Australian Rugby Union and the Waratahs through until 2012, was assisted off the field in obvious pain and the 27-year-old will undergo scans for a suspected torn anterior cruciate ligament.
"If the diagnosis is accurate then he will probably have to go straight in for a knee recon," head coach Chris Hickey told local media. "That's five or six months' rehab ... so that will finish his season. It is a big loss for us."
If confirmed, the injury would also count as a major blow for Australia coach Robbie Deans' Tri-Nations preparations ahead of the World Cup in New Zealand next year.
Palu's rehabilitation would almost certainly put paid to his entire Wallabies season and leave the powerful backrower facing an uphill battle to prove his fitness for New Zealand.
The Waratahs, whose loss to Canterbury left them third on the table after starting the round on top, also face injury concerns to hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau and prop Benn Robinson.
Polota-Nau was replaced late in the game with a suspected dislocated shoulder, while Robinson sustained an arm injury that left him without feeling in his hand. Both will have scans upon returning to Sydney.
