THERE'S a lot of talk about knees in Hong Kong rugby at the moment.
Knee injuries are the bane of many a player's career and the current rash of cases is bedeviling the national team's bid to make it to next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.
The twisting and turning involved in rugby puts tremendous pressure on knees and once something snaps no amount of rest or treatment can make them 100 per cent right again.
A number of players in the Hong Kong squad suffer from knee problems but most seriously affected at the moment are flanker Rick Shuttleworth, lock Roger Patterson and hooker Andy Fields.
'Knees were not really made for playing rugby on,' was the telling comment made recently by Shuttleworth who has not played since Hong Kong's tour to South Africa and Namibia in August.
Hong Kong coach George Simpkin, who has never had to cope with so many injuries during his time in rugby, hopes to play Shuttleworth and Patterson in a warm-up match against the Rest of the League at Boundary Street on Wednesday evening. But Fields, who recently had minor surgery on his knee and is not yet back in full training, wont be risked.
Full-back Justin Weston, who will know today if his foot injury has mended enough for the cast to be removed, and winger Isi Tu'ivai will also miss the match. Tu'ivai is confidant that his collar-bone dislocation will not keep him out of any of the Asian tournament matches but like his sidelined teammates he will not have any match practice before the first game against South Korea on October 23.
