Exeter Chiefs in injury crisis
Exeter have been thrown into injury chaos in the aftermath of the 40-13 defeat to Harlequins over the weekend.
The club is quickly running out of fit players as James Phillips has been ruled out for a number of months with a broken leg and Nic Sestaret is still suffering with an ankle ligament problem.
"We have a couple of injuries, we have to shuffle things around a little bit, but at the end of the day we need to maintain the pressure we'd started to build up," said head coach Rob Baxter.
Phil Dollman and Chris Whitehead were also ruled out of action last week. There is an immense strain on the Exeter squad at present and the danger is that the side's good start to the season could be threatened.
Dangerous times
Exeter has just enough cover to cope with the injuries around the team at present but the danger is if more injuries develop. This would leave the squad stretched and may force younger players to come
into the team or players to play out of position.
This is less than ideal for a newly promoted club, which has been praised for a great start to the season. The defeat at Harlequins was huge and showed the side can crumble under severe pressure.
There is no choice for Exeter other than to keep fingers crossed and hope for the best. The club cannot rush any injured player back because of the team's status. This risks making the injury crisis even
worse.
"We've got to get a lot of things right, that's the lesson of the Premiership. If you turn up, get most things right and get most of your players in the right place you give yourself a good chance. We're
under pressure now," added Baxter.
Betting advice
The defeat at Harlequins may have surprised a few people after the club's good start to the rugby year. Keep an eye on Exeter over the next two or three games. The club still has enough to stay up so back
them to do so.
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