Dowson delivers injury update on Saints prop Hobbs-Awoyemi

Saints have been handed a sizeable pre-season boost, with Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi now back in training at Franklin’s Gardens.
Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (left) and Lewis Ludlam model Saints' new away kit (picture: Roberto Payne/Northampton Saints)Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (left) and Lewis Ludlam model Saints' new away kit (picture: Roberto Payne/Northampton Saints)
Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (left) and Lewis Ludlam model Saints' new away kit (picture: Roberto Payne/Northampton Saints)

The loosehead prop has so far only been able to make four appearances in the black, green and gold after returning to Northampton from London Irish last summer.

Hobbs-Awoyemi suffered an Achilles injury in the defeat at Bristol Bears last September and has been sidelined ever since.

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But Saints, who start the new Gallagher Premiership campaign at home to Gloucester on September 18, returned to pre-season training on Monday, and Hobbs-Awoyemi was able to play a part in the sessions.

Forwards coach Phil Dowson said: “He’s good, he did the fitness test on Monday and he’s doing the whole of training.

“He’s 100 per cent in and he’s coming back from that nasty injury so it’s great to see him back with the ball in his hands.

“It was an injury he’d had before in another leg and it was very frustrating for him because he was actually playing really well at the time.

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“It was disappointing for him but he’s worked hard on his post-operation recovery to get back fit so now we just need to get him moving and get him back into rugby slowly but surely and get him back into full contact.”

Saints are due to play pre-season matches against Ospreys and Bedford Blues prior to the big kick-off, and Hobbs-Awoyemi will hope to be involved.

“He’s all good up to a point where we’re not doing full contact as yet so if there was a game this Saturday, I’m not sure he’d been able to do that,” Dowson added.

“But he is doing all the running, all the rugby, the skill bits, the drills and he’s moving around offline so the next step for him is to get into situations where the Achilles is under big pressure.

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“He needs to get into scrum time, into contact, into pushing off in a power position to make a tackle or a carry. It’s about getting him into those situations in games.

“Because we’ve got a bit of time over pre-season we can make sure he’s not being rushed and we can build him back up progressively.”

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