{"id":802963,"date":"2026-10-15T02:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802963\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T02:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:48:15","slug":"pau-put-on-red-alert-after-geoff-parling-injury-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802963\/","title":{"rendered":"Pau put on red alert after Geoff Parling injury update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published: 10 hours ago | 14 October 2026 11:51 EDT
Updated: 10 hours ago | 14 October 2026 11:52 EDT <\/p>\n

mens<\/p>\n

investec-champions-cup<\/p>\n

LEICESTER, ENGLAND – MAY 31: Leicester Tigers head coach Geoff Parling chats to Freddie Steward (l) and Ollie Chessum following the Gallagher PREM match between Leicester Tigers and Exeter Chiefs at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on May 31, 2026 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Malcolm Couzens\/Getty Images) \"Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Leicester<\/a> head coach Geoff Parling has confirmed that England<\/a> loose forward Ollie Chessum will lead the Tigers into this season\u2019s Champions Cup campaign.<\/p>\n

The Tigers\u2019 club captain hasn\u2019t played for the club since last season\u2019s play-off defeat to Northampton<\/a> due to a foot injury, but is now fit to take his place in the pack against Pau<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cChes will be back for us,\u201d Parling said. \u201cYou obviously want your best players playing, and it\u2019s great to have him back in the squad \u2013 both from a playing point of view and a leadership point of view and what he does there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that the guys that have been playing have been great and done really well. I\u2019d point to someone like Finn Carnduff, who has done so many good things after a pretty wretched season last season, but it great to have Ches back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got some people out (injured), but it is not affecting how we prep and how we train,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Success in the Champions Cup has proved elusive for Tigers for a number of years, and a trip to the Stade de Hameau represents a tough start for a team looking to put that record straight.<\/p>\n

One-time relegation candidates Pau have only lost one of their first six games this season and are second in the Top 14<\/a> table, having established themselves as a team to be feared in France\u2019s top division.<\/p>\n

Whilst not stacked with stars to the extent of a Toulouse<\/a> or a Toulon, one of Pau\u2019s main men, fly-half Joe Simmonds, is very familiar to Parling from their time as team-mates at Exeter (2015-17).<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Joe, he\u2019s a good guy, a good kicker, a good game manager and just a genuine good player; he is enjoying his time in France<\/a> and it is good to see him going well,\u201d said Parling.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Head-to-Head <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We do not have any previous games on record.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leicester\u2019s discipline will have to be on point if they are not going to come off second-best to Simmonds\u2019 punishing boot.<\/p>\n

Simmonds is the second-highest points scorer in the Top 14, having collected 46 points from four appearances, with a success rate in front of goal of 95.5%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I speak about the French crowd, you bring them into the game if you are ill-disciplined.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscipline is just accuracy for me \u2013 being really, really auccrate in what you do,\u201d Parling added.<\/p>\n

More than two months will have passed before Leicester tackle their next French assignment, the clash at home to Clermont<\/a> on Saturday, 12 December..<\/p>\n

Leicester then travel to Glasgow<\/a> in Round 3 and host Leinster<\/a> in Round 4, on back-to-back weekends in January.<\/p>\n

Parling would prefer a less fragmented structure. \u201cI don\u2019t think it makes a difference to us in terms of prepping, but I\u2019d prefer two blocks of two, I\u2019d prefer to have some consecutive rounds in there, just in terms of the feel of it really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 10 hours ago | 14 October 2026 11:51 EDT Updated: 10 hours ago | 14 October 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-802963","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\/802963","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=802963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}