
Injury update with Head Physiotherapist, Tom Pearson
31st January 2025
Doncaster Knights Head Physiotherapist Tom Pearson discussed our current injured players and where they are at in terms of their rehabilitation.
“This injury update is something we’ve been wanting to bring in for a while now, just to keep the fans in the loop of what’s happening behind the scenes and now seems like an appropriate time.
“The the first one initially is Thom Smith, I don’t know if people have seen on social media, I know he’s he’s put a couple of pictures out, but he recently had shoulder surgery last week. He’s gonna be out for the next, roughly four to five months and it’s quite a big op. We are confident he’s gonna come back and we can work really hard to get him stronger while he’s working through his rehabilitation.
“Connor Edwards has also recently had surgery on his hand, it’s a much shorter turnaround but we’re confident he’s gonna be back in the next three or four weeks from that.”
George Wacokecoke is also undergoing rehab for a more long term injury, “he picked up a hamstring injury against Hartpury and he’s gonna miss the cup block. But, we are working to get him back for the next league block.”
Russell Bennett left the field early against Nottingham on Friday night. Tom provided an update on Bennett, “Russ did leave the field pretty early, he picked up a knee injury in that game which was a contact injury and we actually scanned him earlier this week and unfortunately he’s injured his MCL, which is one of the ligaments in his knee.”
“He is gonna miss the cup block, but we’re gonna work hard to get him back for the next league block, as early as possible.”
It is not all negative news however, as there are a handful of players who are much further along in their rehabilitation process:
“Cory Teague unfortunately picked up a nasty injury really early in the in the league against Ealing. He had a surgery on that shoulder back then, so he’s doing really well, he’s starting to integrate back into full training and we’re confident we can get him back playing in the next two or three weeks. So that’s really positive for Corey.”
“Semesa Rokoduguni is back in full training now more or less, and we’re hopeful that he’ll be back from his hamstring injury in the next two weeks.”
The Doncaster Knights medical team is made up of Tom and our assistant physiotherapist Alice Smith, as well as our two doctors James and Phil. Tom explained their roles: “Really my role is to try and get players back as quickly as possible but also safely and following the right protocols. As well as thinking about player welfare.
“A big part of what we do is obviously trying to prevent injuries, and without getting too ‘nausey’, certain injuries are preventable to a point and so we try and mitigate those types of injuries by giving players specific gym programs for example and specific things on field that they do in terms of preparation, and load monitoring. However, contact injuries, with it being a contact sport we can’t always predict those and we definitely can’t prevent them.”
As well as these injured players, we also have a handful of players who are unavailable for selection due to reasons outside of injury. These players are:
- Will Parry
- Arthur Green
- Andrew Turner
- Logovi’i Mulipola