Saints suffer big Davison blow as Dowson delivers injury latest before Castres clash
Saints have been dealt a big blow with the news that England tighthead prop Trevor Davison will be sidelined for the rest of the season due to a knee injury.
Davison suffered the problem after coming off the bench in last Saturday’s 21-17 Gallagher PREM win against Saracens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
And the 33-year-old will now have surgery on Thursday before starting the journey to recovery.
It is yet another serious knee injury for Saints, who lost Robbie Smith, Sam Graham and Toby Thame to similar issues last season.
They also saw Edoardo Todaro sidelined for the remainder of this campaign in Feburary as he suffered a knee injury while on Italy duty ahead of the Guinness Six Nations.
And now they must do without Davison as they prepare to continue their fight for silverware on two fronts this season.
When asked for an update on Davison at Wednesday’s media day ahead of Friday night’s Investec Champions Cup home round of 16 clash with Castres Olympique, Saints boss Dowson said: “Trev's not good. He's having surgery tomorrow (Thursday) so he'll miss the rest of the season.”
Thankfully for Saints, Scotland tighthead prop Elliot Millar Mills was able to come off the injured list last week, while they can also call upon Luke Green and England Under-20s ace Sonny Tonga’uiha.
But there is no doubt that not having Davison available is a sizeable loss.
"He's a huge part of the squad and he's been a big part of our success over the past couple of seasons,” Dowson said.
"His signing, coming in from Newcastle, in the season before we won the league, he had a huge impact on and off the field.
"We want to support him.
"Hopefully the surgery goes as smoothly as it can go and we can get him on the road to playing.”
Manny Iyogun and Fin Smith were forced off in the first half of last weekend’s win.
And Dowson said: “Manny is okay. He had a back spasm, not too bad.
"Fin is going through the concussion protocol and he’s out this week.”
Scrum-half Tom James was added to the injury list last week.
And Dowson said: “He's got a hamstring (injury) so we're just taking that day by day as opposed to week by week.”
Saints look set to remain without Alex Coles, Alex Mitchell and George Hendy for Friday’s clash with Castres.
When asked about Coles and Mitchell in particular, Dowson said: “Both improving.”