Quade Cooper’s season comes to a sudden end as his shoulder injury requires surgery

QUADE Cooper’s Wallabies season is in ruins with surgery on his shoulder ruling him out of all 10 Tests the international season.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 17: Quade Cooper of the Reds leaves the field injured during the round 14 Super Rugby match between the Reds and the Rebels at Suncorp Stadium on May 17, 2014 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

QUADE Cooper’s Wallabies season is in ruins with surgery on his shoulder ruling him out of all 10 Tests this season.

The devastated flyhalf received the worst possible news yesterday when MRI scans revealed the damage to the AC Joint in his left shoulder would require an immediate operation that will rule him out until September.

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The downcast Cooper will miss the remaining four games of the Reds disastrous season, the three-Test series against France and the full six-Test program of The Rugby Championship when toppling the All Blacks was a driving goal.

Cooper will use the lengthy recovery window of four months to also undergo arthroscopic surgery to clean up loose cartilage in his hip, a maintenance job that will cover 12 weeks.

Quade Cooper fends off a Crusaders defender. Picture: Mark Calleja

“Quade is obviously disappointed to miss the rest of the season, but he knows these two operations will bring him back to full health,” Reds coach Richard Graham said.

His body will be repaired in time for the October 18 Test against the All Blacks in Brisbane but with no rugby for four months his return to the game will be through the inaugural National Rugby Championship with one of the two Brisbane-based sides.

The news is a crushing jolt to the backline plans of Wallabies boss Ewen McKenzie, who had planned to reunite Cooper’s ball-playing skills and Matt Toomua as a potent midfield combination against the French next month.

McKenzie will name his 32-man Wallabies squad on Thursday. Toomua and Kurtley Beale now loom as the talented duo he will bank on in the midfield for the series against the dangerous European opponents.

Cooper had played every minute of the Reds’ 11 previous games this season before landing heavily on his left shoulder just eight minutes into last Saturday night’s loss to the Melbourne Rebels at Suncorp Stadium.

He had been tackled by Rebels prop Laurie Weeks but the damage was inflicted in a secondary tumble of bodies.

Cooper’s experience from 50 Tests will be missed after the positive return to Test form he made on last year’s end of season tour of Europe.

For the last-placed Reds, it heaps further calamity on their dire fall from grace. Utility back Ben Lucas has trained as the Reds back-up No.10 all season and his perky showing against the Rebels as a replacement suggests he will play there against the Highlanders at Suncorp Stadium on May 30.

Ed O'Donoghue was cleared of this incident with Scott Higginbotham.

Reds lock Ed O’Donoghue was a relieved man last night when he was found not guilty of eye gouging.

The testimony of Scott Higginbotham was significant to the judgement of SANZAR judicial officer Jannie Lubbe because the Rebels captain said he’d made no complaint to referee Steve Walsh and had sustained no injury.

“The act of eye gouging generally triggers a reaction from the victim which was not evident in this case and helped support my finding,” South African Lubbe said.

“Medical evidence supplied by the Rebels indicated no damage had been inflicted upon Mr Higginbotham and furthermore, the player stated that he made no complaint to the referee.

“Eye gouging is certainly a very serious and unacceptable offence in the game of rugby and any allegation warrants a thorough investigation. In this instance, I am satisfied that Mr O’Donoghue has not committed the act in question.”

O’Donoghue felt vindicated after electing to fight for his reputation.

Originally published as Quade Cooper’s season comes to a sudden end as his shoulder injury requires surgery