Harlequins' Nick Evans facing long lay-off if leg injury requires surgery
Wednesday 17 February 2016 11:54, UK
Former All Blacks fly-half Nick Evans could miss the rest of Harlequins' regular Premiership season with a serious leg injury.
Quins boss Conor O'Shea revealed Evans may miss three months if damage to a bone in his right leg can only be repaired by an operation.
The pinpoint goal-kicker would then be in a fight to be fit for a potential Challenge Cup final, on Friday May 13, and the Premiership play-offs, with the semi-finals set for the weekend of May 20 to 22.
The 35-year-old suffered the problem in Harlequins' 28-6 league defeat at Gloucester on Saturday and must now wait to discover the extent of the damage.
"He's seeing a specialist and he'll be out for a minimum of six to seven weeks," said O'Shea.
"He's pulled a bit of bone off the leg, it's just whether, with the damage he's done, it will need to be looked at for an operation.
"If anything happens, it would be around 12 weeks. You see it happen a lot unfortunately. We just wish him luck."
Harlequins sit fifth in the Premiership table and face a European Challenge Cup quarter-final against London Irish on Saturday, April 9.
"Ben (Botica) will get a chance to run the show, and we have Tim Swiel too who played a lot of rugby for us last year," added O'Shea.
