Rugby World Cup: Wallabies whiz kid Jordan Petaia to be kept on ice as injury causes concern
Injured young gun Jordan Petaia is seen as so valuable to the Wallabies World Cup cause that Michael Cheika is prepared to carry him as a passenger for the opening two games in Japan.
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Injury-prone teenager Jordan Petaia could miss the Wallabies’ first two pool matches at the Rugby World Cup as he struggles to recover from his latest hamstring problem.
The uncapped whiz-kid was sent home from Australia’s pre-tournament training camp in New Caledonia after tweaking his hamstring and the recovery is taking longer than expected.
Wallaby coach Michael Cheika said the 19-year-old was making progress but would not be considered for Australia’s opening pool match against Fiji in Sapporo on September 21.
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Cheika said he was hoping the Queensland utility back would be available for the crunch match with Wales in Tokyo a week later but he may have to wait until the match against Uruguay in Oita on October 5.
"Our target for Jordan is a couple of weeks later, but he's on track,” Cheika said.
"If not Wales, the one after but we're hopeful it'll be for Wales, if not, I'm comfortable with the one after."
There was better news for Tevita Kuridrani, who also tweaked his hamstring in the training camp, with the Brumbies’ centre close to full fitness and expected to be available for the clash with Fiji.
"Tevita, he's running nearly back at full pace so I'm hopeful he's going to be right to be available for selection next weekend," Cheika said.
Lock Adam Coleman did not train with the rest of the squad when the Wallabies held a public training session at their base camp in Odawara.
Coleman injured his thumb in last weekend’s win over Samoa but Cheika said he was not in any doubt.
Odawara has been nicknamed ‘Odawallaby’ while the Australians are in town, with around 1000 locals turning up to watch their adopted team practice.
"This is sort of our home ground here and we want to make sure the people here enjoy having the Wallabies in town,” Cheika said.
“We thought for our first training session we'd bring them down and let them have a look at training.
"I hope they enjoyed it."