{"id":394373,"date":"2026-01-28T04:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T04:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394373\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T04:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T04:33:13","slug":"hes-just-been-very-very-unlucky-almost-freakish-really-rob-baxter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394373\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He\u2019s just been very, very unlucky, almost freakish, really’: Rob Baxter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Christ Tshiunza is losing his battle to be fit for Wales\u2019s Six Nations<\/a> campaign with a foot injury that he picked up on the opening day of the Gallagher PREM season.<\/p>\n

The Exeter Chiefs<\/a> back row has been out of action since damaging his foot in the draw with Northampton<\/a> Saints in September, and recently received a setback in his recovery.<\/p>\n

Tshiunza has been battling foot injuries for over a year, and Chiefs<\/a> boss Rob Baxter says that it\u2019s unlikely that he will be ready to play again before the end of the tournament when Italy<\/a> visit Cardiff on March 14th.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be a little bit careful because he\u2019s kind of re-damaged the same area two or three times now. It\u2019s just one of those ones where we\u2019re going to have to be a little careful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next stage is to put a screw in the bone in his foot. It\u2019s one of those things you just don\u2019t want to do unless you really, really have to. It\u2019s a relatively complex structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just been very, very unlucky, almost freakish, really, how he\u2019s damaged the same area two or three times. So if we can get him back for the end of the Premiership season, then he\u2019ll still have plenty of game time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to rule him out of being available towards the end (of the Six Nations), because it\u2019s such an extended competition, isn\u2019t it? But I would say, here and now, I think it would be unlikely,\u201d Baxter told RugbyPass.<\/p>\n

\"ChristBelfast , United Kingdom \u2013 17 January 2025; Christ Tshiunza<\/a> of Exeter Chiefs during the Investec Champions Cup<\/a> Pool 1 match between Ulster<\/a> and Exeter Chiefs at the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy\/Sportsfile via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Chiefs are still waiting on the results of a scan on the knee injury Wallabies flanker Tom Hooper<\/a> suffered in the defeat against Bristol<\/a> Bears last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re hopeful. It\u2019s not too serious. But I\u2019ve been hopeful before, and I\u2019ve been proved wrong, so we\u2019re just keeping our fingers crossed, and it\u2019s nothing too major.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ll see. It\u2019s one of those ones that\u2019s a little bit worrying at the moment. He\u2019s a very good player, very important to us, obviously. If it\u2019s a major one at this stage of the season, you start to go, that\u2019s probably it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s the MCL, which is just obviously a ligament on the side. There\u2019s a good chance he\u2019ll be a lot better by the end of the PREM Cup period,\u201d added Baxter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christ Tshiunza is losing his battle to be fit for Wales\u2019s Six Nations campaign with a foot injury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-394373","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\/394373","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=394373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}