Exeter, England and the RFU will hold an inquest after the Six Nations about the mis-handling of Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s shoulder injury, which has ended the wing sensation’s season.
A review will be conducted into the drawn-out, messy process which led to a critical delay in the 22-year-old having surgery on the shoulder which he dislocated in a match against Sale before Christmas.
As a test case for the new PGP deal – which was announced to great fanfare last autumn – it raised concerns about the efficiency of the club-country agreement, with Exeter highlighting a delay in England medical staff being able to assess the player.
Feyi-Waboso’s belated operation appears to have been a success, but he is now facing a three-month recovery period, which has all but extinguished his hopes of being selected for the Lions tour of Australia this summer. He eventually had surgery after England brought the prolific prodigy in to camp for fitness tests a fortnight ago and he suffered a ‘reinjury’.
Informal talks have already taken place about what went wrong in the two months between his initial setback and the operation, but a more extensive enquiry will take place next month.
Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, said: ‘I spoke to Conor O’Shea (RFU director of professional rugby) and Steve Borthwick (England head coach) and everyone agreed that the whole scenario around how things have worked needs to be discussed post-Six Nations.
Tensions have escalated between England and Exeter over Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s injury
Steve Baxter has revealed Exeter, England and the RFU will hold an inquest after the Six Nations
‘We need to discuss how things should happen and should work going forward. You don’t need me to tell you that if someone gets injured before Christmas and has only had an operation now, then something has gone wrong somewhere in the process. It’s something we have to find a better way to do in the future.’
Baxter was asked to recap the sequence of events which led to this point and said: ‘Both ourselves and England would say that, right from the start, the prognosis was that it was 50-50 whether to go for the operative route or try the rehab route. That’s how it started and then it moved towards an operation, but for various reasons it got delayed. Then, it became almost more sensible to keep it as a rehab scenario.
‘The frustration is that if things had moved more swiftly in the first 10 or 11 days… We had an operation booked for him. He had two scans, then an operation was decided on, initially 10 days post the injury, which would have made him fit now. That’s the frustration.
‘I think everyone can understand the various bits and pieces that led to some of the delays, which is why the rehab decision ended up being the more sensible one. Ultimately, now, it doesn’t look like the more sensible one because the shoulder clearly needed an op, but nothing was said initially about it being a clear operation or rehab decision.’
When it was announced as a breakthrough development for the future of English professional rugby, the PGP agreement was hailed as a means of achieving greater club-country alignment, not least around the thorny issue of player management. But the injury to Feyi-Waboso was the first major test of how the arrangement would function and it failed.
Borthwick and England have been given the final say in medical matters relating to their contracted players – which applies in this case – but their staff were on leave when this episode occurred. This is among the issues to be resolved; the gap between theoretical and actual control of events.
‘Right from the outset, when the surgeon first looked at it, he said, “This is a 50-50; you can go operative route or you can try rehab”,’ said Baxter.
England have been given the final say in medical matters relating to their contracted players
‘After two or three days, it was assessed again and the operative route was selected by the player, England and us. Then another delay happened on which surgeon England wanted to use and then another medical issue came up with Manny having a tooth infection. This was never so straightforward and easy.
‘My biggest frustration and England’s was that it took a while for this process to get going because of the Christmas period. We organised a scan two days after (the injury) and then a second scan the day after Boxing Day and then an operation was initially booked.
‘That process was quite quick when it was in our hands, but at that stage England didn’t really have any involvement, around that Christmas period. That probably is the bit that really needed sorting out and that’s the only bit I have said to Conor O’Shea needs to be looked at.
‘I am not saying it was a straightforward case; I am not saying it was easy. There were so many moving parts that I am not going to sit here and say it was a black and white decision where one person is right and one person is wrong.
‘Are there things to learn from it? Absolutely. But is it as straightforward as saying the RFU or Exeter are wrong? It is not. It is nowhere near that simple.’
When pressed on whether nobody from the RFU medical staff had been available to assess Feyi-Waboso over the festive period, Baxter added: ‘Initially, there wasn’t anyone available. That would be my argument; almost the first person who should see Manny is the RFU (because they have the final say of management). That would be my interpretation of what the agreement means.
‘At the end of the day, there were always going to be some teething issues, weren’t there? Initially, it probably took England by surprise as well because the reality is saying you are going to take charge of it and then taking charge of it within 24 hours are two different things, when you’re not in a competitive window so people aren’t together.
‘Those are some of the things that very quickly they’re going to start to talk about to get established and get right. That has to happen. For me, they should have got on with it straight away and that’s probably the biggest lesson from the whole situation.’
