Injury Threatens Shanks Career

Shanks With Giggs
By Andrew Collins
December 17 2005

Blues, Wales and Lion's star Tom Shanklin has admitted he still fears for his career following a knee injury that started way back in April. The centre recovered in time for the Lion's your, but aggrivated the knee. He then re-injured himself against Wasps in the Powergen cup.

Tom said this week,

"There is a small chance it could be career threatening, at the moment it's best to rest. I didn't give the injury enough time to rest because I wanted to go on the Lions tour so it got progressively worse, now I have to be patient."

Shanklin is very unlikely to feature any time before of even during the 6 Nations next year, but is still confident he cane make the turn around and resume his playing career.

"I'd love to be part of the Six Nations, but if I can't get back for that there are other goals to target. We've talked about me making a comeback in February, but I'm not sure if I'll be fit enough to play then. I'm not setting targets, I'd rather look at the bigger picture of playing rugby again."

The worry with Tom's injury, is that is has re-occurred twice since the origional injury against Ulster earlier this year, if he rushes his comeback, there is a big chance he would do himself more harm and end his playing career.

In recent weeks, the Blues have begun lining up a bid for centre Matthew Watkins, who, in shanklins absence, has found his way onto the international stage and performed very well. If Shanklin can return, there is a likely international partnership waiting for him, if not, Jaime Robinson will surely grab the chance with both hands.