Scotland
Mark Bennett gutted for injured Scotland team-mate Alex Dunbar
ESPN Staff
September 7, 2015
Alex Dunbar
Alex Dunbar© (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Mark Bennett has backed centre-partner Alex Dunbar to return stronger than ever after injury left his World Cup dream in tatters.

The Glasgow Warrior was crushed when it was confirmed Scotstoun colleague Dunbar would not make Vern Cotter's 31-man travelling Scotland squad for England 2015. Dunbar suffered a serious cruciate ligament rupture in his knee just days before the Scots faced England during the RBS 6 Nations in March.

But, despite making some huge strides in recent weeks, Dunbar has not yet been able to return to action, leading Cotter to decide that selecting the 25-year-old without a thorough test of his knee was too much of a gamble.

Play ESPNfootytips Rugby World Cup Tipping

Bennett also felt the pain after watching his friend put in hours of graft in order to give himself hope.

He told Press Association Sport: "I'm absolutely gutted for Alex. He's a quality player but it was always going to be a big ask to come back from an ACL in the space of six months.

"Fair play to him, he's given it as good a shot as he could. He's not far off a return and he's working as hard as he can to get back. I've got a lot of respect for the work he has put in.

"Hopefully we will see him sooner rather than later.

"As far as I know he's just focusing now on getting back playing without placing too much attention on the World Cup. He's in a good place right now and just wants to get back on the field.

"But I'm sure that whenever he gets back he will be a stronger person for it."

© ESPN Staff

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices