Bath and England centre Ollie Lawrence’s injury means he now faces a ‘long road’ to recovery according to club boss Johann van Graan.
Lawrence, 25, underwent surgery on a ruptured Achilles tendon in recent days after suffering the injury in England’s Six Nations win against Italy on 9 March.
Although the operation was reportedly a success, Bath head coach Van Graan has said there is ‘no timeline’ on the centre’s recovery.
“That will be a long road, we’ll work with Ollie to make sure he returns at the right time,” Van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol.
“Ollie’s a powerful athlete and we need to make sure he returns with all of his power, but we’ll work very closely with England and make sure we all look after Ollie – the care given to him has been fantastic over the last few weeks.”
Ollie Lawrence Injury Ends Lions Hopes
Lawrence had been one of the first names on the team sheet for both club and country since joining Bath in 2022 after the collapse of former club Worcester Warriors.
He started all but one of England’s last 17 games, and his recent form had him tipped by most to make Andy Farrell’s squad for the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia this summer.
Sadly, the severity of his injury means he will not be involved with the Lions.
Lawrence posted an update on Tiktok, which confirmed the extent of his injury.
@ollielawrence13 🌹 England Vlog 4 – The day I ruptured my Achilles tendon 🤯🥺 @England Rugby @Guinness Men’s Six Nations #fyp #rugby #6nations #england #video #lesgo #Vlog #Italy #injury
The gut-wrenching timing of Lawrence’s injury was something Van Graan acknowledged.
He added: “Injuries are such a big part of the game. I guess there’s never a good time – this was a terrible time for him.
“I thought he was one of our best players this whole season. He had something like three or four man-of-the-match performances in a row. That Leinster game, he was one of the best players on the planet that day.
“He’s phenomenal for England. I thought he was very good in the Six Nations and Faz [Farrell] will select the Lions but, in my view, he had a very good chance.
“He’s one of our most important players so [it’s] not great to lose him but knowing Ollie he’ll come back harder and stronger through this battle and we’re all with him.”
Bath Chasing First Premiership Title In Almost 30 Years
As well as being devastating for Lawrence himself, and for England, club side Bath will need to finish the season without one of their most important players.
The Somerset side are top of the Gallagher Premiership and chasing their first English league title since 1996.
They were beaten by Northampton in last year’s Premiership final, after a first-half red card for prop Beno Obano saw them play most of the game with 14.
Bath are six points clear at the top of the table, and host rivals Gloucester at the Recreation Ground on Sunday.
They will do so without Joe Cokanasiga, as well as Lawrence, after the winger went off injured in Bath’s Premiership Cup final victory against Exeter at the weekend.
“Joe took a bang to the lower leg,” said Van Graan.
“[I’m] not going to speculate on length [of absence], he’s under the careful watch of [Bath medical lead] Rory Murray but hopefully it’s not too serious and we see him back soon.”
While there is much expectation on Bath this season, Van Graan is taking things week-to-week.
“We don’t pay too much attention to the outside noise – we know there’s a lot of speculation and people have got expectation and that’s brilliant because people care about the club and they care about our team,” he said.
“For us it’s business as usual, [we] started at zero two days ago – control the bits we can, don’t look beyond Sunday three o’clock.”
