Reds’ title hopes cop huge blow as Wallaby hopeful ruled out for the rest of Super season
The Queensland Reds are charging towards the Super Rugby season, but their hopes of claiming their second title – and first since 2014 – have suffered a huge blow after losing Harry Wilson for the rest of the season.
The 24-year-old was forced in the 48th minute of the Reds’ 26-22 win over the Rebels in Brisbane.
The hard-running No.8 broke his arm in the process of bringing down Rebels loose-head prop Isaac Kailea in the 44th minute.
The 12-Test Wallaby played on for another four minutes, before succumbing to the injury.
Harry Wilson will miss the rest of the Super Rugby season. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
While Reds fans held out hope the injury wouldn’t be too bad, hearts sank when footage of him wearing a sling with his jersey off was shown on the big screen soon after.
Reds coach Les Kiss indicated post-match on Friday that Wilson would likely need surgery, which the No.8 confirmed on Sunday in an Instagram post.
“When it rains, it pours,” he wrote. “Tough week for [my brother] Will Wilson and myself. Surgery.
“Now time for a little rest before getting ready for a big second half of ‘24.”
Wilson is expected to miss up to eight weeks, which will likely scupper his hopes of a Test recall under Joe Schmidt.
The New Zealand coach is expected to name his first Wallabies squad in late June ahead of the Wallabies’ Test opener against Wales on July 6.
Harry Wilson had been one of Les Kiss’ best in 2024. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
The Wallabies then have Tests against Warren Gatland’s side in Melbourne on July 13, before rounding out their mid-year Tests against Georgia in Sydney on July 20.
Although he was in the Wallabies’ wider squad last year, Wilson didn’t feature under Eddie Jones in 2023 and was controversially left out of Dave Rennie’s Spring Tour campaign at the end of 2022.
But the back-rower’s strong campaign to date this year under Les Kiss was likely to see him return to the selection mix.
More pressingly, Wilson’s injury is a massive blow to Kiss’ hopes of making a deep run in this year’s Super Rugby competition.
Alongside Fraser McReight and Liam Wright, the Reds’ back-row trio had given the Reds a point of difference.
Rising back-rower John Bryant is expected to come into the back-row, but another option is Seru Uru, who is racing the clock to be fit for Saturday’s tough challenge against the Drua in Fiji.