{"id":253315,"date":"2025-11-09T16:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/253315\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T16:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T16:00:11","slug":"scotland-braced-for-finn-russell-injury-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/253315\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland braced for Finn Russell injury blow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scotland<\/a> face an anxious wait to learn if talisman Finn Russell<\/a> will be fit for next Sunday\u2019s Test against Argentina<\/a> at Murrayfield.<\/p>\n

The stand-off required treatment on his knee on more than one occasion in Saturday\u2019s agonising 25-17 defeat by New Zealand<\/a> before being substituted in the closing stages after also sustaining an ankle issue.<\/p>\n

With British and Irish Lions<\/a> pair Huw Jones<\/a> and Zander Fagerson<\/a> having missed out on Saturday, head coach Gregor Townsend<\/a> is hoping he does not lose another key player for what promises to be an arduous encounter against the burgeoning Pumas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis knee was the initial injury, and I thought he was outstanding, even though he had that knee strain,\u201d Townsend said of Russell. \u201cThe reason we took him off was because he had an ankle too, so there were two injuries he was carrying.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t think it\u2019ll be serious, but it\u2019s obviously too early to say. We hope he\u2019ll be fit for next week, but we have to deal with injuries. We had two Lions who weren\u2019t available for the New Zealand game, but we\u2019ve got other players that can step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scotland were left devastated after letting a golden opportunity slip to notch their first-ever win over New Zealand on Saturday.<\/p>\n

After trailing 17-0 at the break following tries by Cam Roigard<\/a> and Will Jordan<\/a>, the Scots roared back to level the match by the hour mark courtesy of tries from Ewan Ashman<\/a> and Kyle Steyn<\/a>, and a penalty from Russell.<\/p>\n

When the All Blacks<\/a> lost a third player to a yellow card early in the fourth quarter \u2013 Wallace Sititi<\/a> followed Leroy Carter<\/a> and Ardie Savea<\/a> in being sent to the sin-bin \u2013 Scotland appeared to have their chance.<\/p>\n

But the Kiwis regained their composure and got themselves back in front with a sensational finish in the 73rd minute from replacement Damian McKenzie<\/a>, who then sealed the win with a long-range penalty.<\/p>\n

Townsend said: \u201cThe reality is that there\u2019s always a winner and a loser in sport, and this is not the final game in our season or the final game in the players\u2019 careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got one next week. We\u2019d love to play New Zealand more regularly. We will play them next year in the new Nations Championship, so we just have to make the most of the opportunities we get. But if we don\u2019t, then we make sure we become a better team for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been a better team off defeats and victories, and even how we played from first half to second half. There were a lot of good things in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to not have your spirit broken by being held up twice, and to concede a try right on half-time, and come back and get to 17-all, and also just dominate all facets of play in that 20-25 minute period, it shows what the team\u2019s capable of.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to make sure that over the next two weeks we get to build and grow together. You\u2019re only here for a short period of time in November, but that\u2019s a very useful game for us, for the Six Nations<\/a> too, against a really quality opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland face an anxious wait to learn if talisman Finn Russell will be fit for next Sunday\u2019s Test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-253315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}