Aidan Ross adds to the Chiefs front rower woes

Aidan Ross is the sixth Chiefs player ruled out for the rest season due to injury following his injury against the Hurricanes this weekend.

The 22-year-old was taken from the field after sustaining a nasty leg injury after teammate Angus Ta'avao landed on him in the Hamilton-based club's 25-13 loss to the Hurricanes in Wellington last week and was later ruled to have a broken ankle.

As a result, Ross will join fellow forwards Dominic Bird (shoulder), Fin Hoeata (shoulder), Atu Moli (quad haematoma), Mitchell Brown (knee) and winger Tim Nanai-Williams (shoulder) on the sidelines for the remainder of the campaign.

"I think it's just a bit unlucky," coach Colin Cooper said of the Chiefs' continuing injury woes. "If you look at Rossy, it was just a tackle an one of our players fell on him. It's just the way the game is – it's a fast game, it's a physical game – and, yes, our expectation of front rowers is to do more than push."

With Ross out, now all six of the props originally contracted by the Chiefs are out injured. Along with Ross and Moli being out for the rest of the campaign, Kane Hames was yet to play a match this season and was going through concussion protocols; Mitchell Graham was battling back from a leg injury; Nepo Laulala was recovering from a broken arm and Sefo Kautai was recovering from a foot injury.

As a result, former Blues prop Sam Prattley has been called into the squad ahead of the side's clash against the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday. He'll join Ta'avao, Karl Tu'inukuafe and Jeff Thwaites as the available front-rowers for the match.

Full story via nzherald