Ospreys’ Gareth Owen sustains season ending injury; appoint three development coaches – Rugby news
Swansea based Welsh Professional Rugby Union club, Ospreys, suffered a major blow to their 2011/12 Rabo Direct Pro 12 preparations as their star centre Gareth Owen is expected to miss most of the upcoming season due to injury.
Clubs officials have confirmed the possible non-availability of their experienced centre in a statement released on their website on Friday, July 8. The statement read, “Gareth Owen could miss the entire 2011/12 campaign after suffering what has been described
as a "substantial injury" in training.”
Ospreys’ team physio, Chris Towers, confirmed that Owen has injured his knee while training. He said, “Gareth underwent surgery on Thursday after he suffered a knee injury in training. It was a bit of a freak accident resulting in him twisting his knee,
sustaining a substantial injury.”
Towers further confirmed that the surgery will be conducted in two phases and after Thursday’s surgery, another operation will be required. He said, “Thursday's operation was the first part of what will be a two stage surgical procedure to repair the damage
and then reconstruct the cruciate ligament.”
Towers confirmed that it is expected that the surgery and the subsequent rehabilitation might rule Owen out of next season. He further added that it is still premature to provide the exact recovery time.
In addition to this, Ospreys on Friday, have announced the new coaching and development roles for Damian Karauna, Steve Tandy and Mefin Davies. Ospreys have installed a three-group structure for coaching and development of their younger players. These groups
are organized as Group A, Group B and Group C.
Both Damian Karauna and Steve Tandy have been appointed as the coaches in Group B and additionally will continue to perform in their current roles. Steve Tandy will continue with his role as head coach at Bridgend RFC while Karauna will continue to work
as assistant coach at Swansea RFC.
Karauna’s role also includes working with Group C. Mefin Davies will start his coaching career as Group C coach alongside Karauna and Dan Griffiths.
Ospreys’ Chief Operations Officer, Andrew h**e, has expressed the club’s desire to continue with the development program and structure. He added, “The appointments confirmed today are key to the ongoing success of this programme. Steve, Damian and Mefin
are quality young coaches who have a bright future ahead of them.”
h**e further added, "It's important that we don't stand still, we have to keep working hard to ensure as seamless a progression for our young players as possible, and this is where the structure we have in place here, with A, B and C groups, and coaches
who overlap in terms of responsibility, will help us to achieve that.”
The Ospreys will be working hard to create a winning season in the upcoming Rabo Direct Pro 12. Let’s see if the injury and new coaches will have an long lasting effects on their output.
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