Injury woes start to ease for Chiefs

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter has today given a positive outlook on the club’s walking wounded during his weekly media briefing held at Sandy Park.

Having been without a number of frontline stars in recent weeks due to long-term injuries, it appears things are brightening up for the Devon club.

Hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie marked his return to first team action following a broken thumb at Worcester a fortnight ago, while the sight of Dave Ewers and Henry Slade both out and about in training this week is equally encouraging.

Meanwhile, locks Damian Welch and Mitch Lees are also progressing nicely in terms of their rehab programmes, although both are still some way from returning to competitive action.

“Things are starting to look a lot better on that front,” said Baxter. “Henry was out kicking today, which seems remarkable where that time has gone, while Dave Ewers is doing a lot more and is not too far away from a return.

“At the same time, Luke Cowan-Dickie is getting himself back to full fitness and really settled in, Lewis Stevenson is also beginning to get really settled in, and we’re knocking the weeks of in terms of Mitch and Damo, so we’re looking at what could be a very exciting period of time at the end of the season where we should have a very strong squad.

“Right now, though, we’ve just got to get our heads down, knuckle down and make sure we are performing well now. We’ve been doing that and the lads that have been playing have done very well, but we’re looking for more big performances from them.”