STUART HOGG is likely to make his long-awaited return to action this weekend when Glasgow Warriors host Exeter Chiefs in their final match of this season’s European Champions Cup.
His availability would come at a perfect time for the player and Gregor Townsend, the Scotland coach, giving him scope to dust off the cobwebs following two months of enforced inaction before the NatWest 6 Nations begins.
According to Jason O’Halloran, the Glasgow Warriors attack coach, Hogg is among a group of key players hoping to be involved in Sunday’s game, with Tommy Seymour,
Leonardo Sarto and maybe even Alex Dunbar also looking to return from injury. Ryan Wilson, however, is unlikely to be ready for another couple of weeks, making him touch and go for Scotland’s opening Six Nations encounter in Cardiff.
Hogg has been running with the team all week and according to the coach, his infectious enthusiasm is already having an effect after the demoralising 55-19 defeat by Leinster last weekend. Barring a major setback in match-intensity training, he will feature against Exeter.
“He’s been a menace,” said O’Halloran. “He was narking at me three weeks ago [saying] ‘I’m good to go, I’m good to go’ and I’m [saying] ‘that’s not what the physios say’. I love that attitude, you want guys who are keen to get on the field as quickly as possible. Even watching training, he brings a bit of zest and zeal to others around him, which is crucial given the disappointing result last week.
“He ran really well, we are really pleased with that. We have not done a lot of contact work yet, so we do a bit of contact work and also see how the foot/hip bear up after he did a lot of running on a pretty firm surface. How he recovers and gets through contact will be key for selection. Unless he turns up really, really stiff tomorrow or bangs his shoulder and gets a bit sore in contact tomorrow I would imagine he will be fit for selection.”
Hogg himself has been raring to go since the start of the month but has been held back by a niggling foot problem that has delayed his return beyond the stage where the hip issue that led to him pulling out of the Australia Test minutes before kick off was sorted.
It all means that Glasgow, looking for their first win in this year’s Champions Cup, are hoping to field a stronger side against Exeter than they did in their match in Dublin with a number of established combinations restored to action.
There will also be a second run-out for George Turner, the hooker on loan from Edinburgh, who will become an official Glasgow player from the summer after signing a two-year deal with the club that revived his career after five years of frustration in the east.
“Since I’ve been here it has been ideal, I just want to stay here and develop further,” he said.
“It has been quite a strange experience because it all changes at once. It is a very different experience being involved every week, doing all the analysis and reviewing the game for other players, and the development of my game has just really taken off. The best way to earn and get better is to play, so to get so much more professional rugby under my belt has been huge.”
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