{"id":786700,"date":"2026-09-29T20:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T20:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786700\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T20:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T20:08:18","slug":"johann-van-graans-worst-fears-confirmed-over-sam-underhill-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786700\/","title":{"rendered":"Johann van Graan’s worst fears confirmed over Sam Underhill injury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published: 4 hours ago | 29 September 2026 11:29 EDT
Updated: 3 hours ago | 29 September 2026 12:41 EDT <\/p>\n

mens<\/p>\n

gallagher-premiership<\/p>\n

LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 25: Bath Rugby’s Sam Underhill leaves the field with an injury during the Gallagher PREM 2026\/2027 match between Harlequins and Bath Rugby at The Stoop on September 25, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Bob Bradford – CameraSport via Getty Images) \"Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Johann van Graan has revealed that England<\/a> flanker Sam Underhill suffered a torn bicep in last Friday\u2019s 33-17 win at Harlequins<\/a> and will undergo an operation on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Underhill was replaced after 48 minutes at the Twickenham Stoop and a concerned van Graan rushed down to the tunnel to check on the luckless player, later admitting that the injury looked \u201cpotentially serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now his worst fears have been confirmed, with Underhill\u2019s latest setback likely to cost him three months of rugby, including England\u2019s Nations Championship<\/a> campaign in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a few type of injuries where I just want to know straight away because I know the impact that it has longer term, and I always feel for the players, so that\u2019s why I went straight down (to the tunnel),\u201d he said during this week\u2019s media session.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time it was very much, \u2018look, we need to wait for the scan, but this could be a bicep rupture\u2019. And the scan turned out to be exactly that, so he will get operated on, on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s obviously a few months out of the game, so not ideal from Sam\u2019s point of view. But as with every player who gets injured at this club, we\u2019ll do our best to get him back as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Graan added: \u201cIt is always disappointing for every player when you get injured in round one, because you have just come through a big pre-season and you are just kind of getting started. But injuries are part and parcel of this game and Sam had had a few big ones, and I am sure he will be back as soon as possible, and we are looking forward to welcoming him back, whenever that is, whether it is December or January.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, van Graan has confirmed that veteran hooker Tom Dunn is available for selection, while a decision will be taken later in the week on winger Henry Arundell.<\/p>\n

The England international missed the Harlequins match with a back complaint. \u201cHenry was part of training today,\u201d van Graan confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is struggling a bit with his back so will make a decision later in the week whether he will play on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go 7-1 or 6-2, you want to make sure your backs can stay on the field for 80 minutes and, ultimately, we don\u2019t want to put a player on the field who is not 100% right. So we\u2019ll see how he gets through the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he is a very important player for us, but if isn\u2019t 100%, we are going to back our squad as we have done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

One piece of good news is that captain and first-choice scrum-half Ben Spencer is back in training and will be available for selection in mid-October.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 4 hours ago | 29 September 2026 11:29 EDT Updated: 3 hours ago | 29 September 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-786700","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\/786700","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=786700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}