Saints ace Langdon expresses optimism about playing again this season

On Tuesday afternoon, Saints boss Phil Dowson revealed Langdon had undergone surgery after suffering a thumb injury during the first half of the Investec Champions Cup defeat at Bath earlier this month.

Dowson stated that Langdon would be out for a ‘considerable amount of time’ and was unable to confirm whether the England hooker would play again this season.

But, speaking on BBC Radio Northampton’s Saints Show on Wednesday night, Langdon expressed optimism that he would be able to feature for Saints during the remainder of this campaign.

The black, green and gold are currently top of the league table and play their final PREM regular-season match at Harlequins on June 6 before potentially starting their play-off bid on the following weekend.

When asked how he is, Langdon said: “I’m good. Not as good as I was a few weeks ago when I was back playing after that long-term (shoulder) injury.

"It’s a bit of a frustrating one, losing at Bath and picking up this thumb injury, but it’s not a bad one and time will go quickly, especially compared to that shoulder injury I had.

"I’m just looking forward to being back out there again.

"I’ve had more time on the radio than on the pitch this year.

"We had a good start at Bath, I was really enjoying it and it was the first game where my body felt back to normal because I’d had some good minutes under my belt, I felt back in the groove and we had a great start to that game so to pick up that injury was a bit of a killer."

Asked what the nature of his injury is, Langdon said: “I fractured my thumb, it’s called a Bennett’s fracture and because of that break it was unstable so it kept dislocating, which obviously made it quite tough to throw and try to continue.

"I did it when (Tom) Dunn scored his tap-and-go try and I thought I’d just bent my thumb back but after trying to throw a few lineouts and trying to get a bind at scrum time, I realised it was dislocated because of the break.

"We tried putting it back in and strapping it up but we couldn’t.

"It wasn’t a big fix. I had a screw put in last Wednesday up in Manchester. Mike Hayton is the best hand surgeon there is and he’s happy with it so the recovery is not long and I’ll be back out there again this season, if Dows (Saints boss Phil Dowson) picks me.”

Langdon suffered a shoulder injury towards the end of last season and had surgery to rectify that problem last summer.

That ruled him out until March 8, when he made his return from the bench in the PREM Rugby Cup semi-final defeat at Exeter Chiefs.

He went on to play a further four matches before suffering the thumb injury.

And Langdon added: "I feel fresh now because I haven’t played a lot of rugby this season.

"I feel as fresh as I ever have at this point in the season and I’ll be back for the business end so hopefully Dows does put me back in.

"I’ve got some making up to do after the time I’ve been out.”

When asked how he’s dealing with his latest injury setback, Langdon said: “I’m coping alright.

"It’s really frustrating but it’s nowhere near as serious as my last injury.

"I’m going to be back out there again this season so I’m just doing everything I can to be in the best place possible when that time comes.”