Rugby Championship
Australia suffer Quade Cooper blow
ESPN Staff
September 18, 2012
Australia's Quade Cooper issues some instruction, New Zealand v Australia, Rugby Championship, Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand, August 25, 2012
Quade Cooper will sit out the rest of the Rugby Championship © Getty Images
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Australian fly-half Quade Cooper will miss the rest of the Rugby Championship due to a knee injury.

Cooper has started Australia's last three matches in the fly-half berth after making his comeback from a knee injury suffered in the 2011 World Cup bronze medal match with Wales. But the Australian Rugby Union claim that he has "a small chip of articular cartilage in his right knee" - the same knee that he injured back in October - that requires attention.

The ARU also reveal that Cooper will require an operation to clean up the injury but they are optimistic that he will be fit for their November tour to Europe. But he will definitely miss their final two matches in the Championship which come against South Africa at Loftus Versveld on September 29 and Argentina on October 6 in Rosario.

It is likely, in Cooper's absence, that Berrick Barnes will revert back to fly-half after being shifted to fullback for their match with Argentina last Saturday and inside centre before that. Barnes starred for Australia in their three Test series with Wales back in June and started all of the games at fly-half for Robbie Deans' side.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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