Hooker Out Long Term?

By Mally
November 7 2002

Falcons fans found out earlier this week that Steve Brotherstone, Newcastle's hooker, was to miss out on a place in the Scotland team playing Romania this weekend due to an knee injury picked up in last weekend's match against London Irish. But the bad news doesn't end there...

Brotherstone could be out long term.

Steve is to undergo an exploratory operation to determine the extent of his injury and as he told Alan Hedley in The Journal he is keeping his fingers crossed.

"The surgeon is going to perform an exploratory operation and there is still hope that the damage might not be as serious as it looks and I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but it's a real nightmare"

A long lay off could mean that his Zurich Premiership season is over, which is bad news for all Falcons fans, and for those who are also Scotland fans it’s a double blow.

"It couldn't have happened at a worst time both for me and the club. It's the start of the autumn internationals and I've obviously had to pull out of those and if I'm out for as long as eight months, it means I could be struggling for next year's World Cup."

Cruciate ligament damage could mean an 8 month lay-off or even longer. Remember how Laurence Dal return from injury kept being out back last season?

The club were hoping that Steve had “just” damaged his cartilage, although Brotherstone admitted he feared the worst:

“We were hoping initially that it was just cartilage damage but there was such a crack when I did it on Sunday I was fearing the worst.”

Fingers Crossed

While Steve Brotherstone and the Falcons fans all have their fingers crossed, let’s hope that Rob Andrew and the management team are looking at their options. Since Steve joined Newcastle he has been our number one hooker. With Brotherstone out for at best a few weeks and at worst the whole season the Falcons are struggling with Nick Makin and Thumper Jnr (Matt Thompson) as the back up hookers.

Rob Andrew has recently proved he’s not averse to getting out the cheque book, having signed Earl Va’a to cover for Jonny. If Wilko’s 3 week stint on England duty merits additional cover being signed then surely Brotherstone’s injury does to? Falcons fans have already begun to speculate as to who would be available at this point in the season – a Southern Hemisphere player perhaps? Or maybe a loan player from another club?

Whatever happens regarding signings – lets’ hope Steve gets some good news and his injury is not as bad as it seems.

The Journal article by Alan Hedley