Australian Rugby
Horwill recovery on track
Scrum.com
January 8, 2009
Reds lock James Horwill claims a lineout against the Chiefs, March 24 2007
Horwill hopes to return to action midway through the forthcoming Super 14 season © Getty Images
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Reds captain James Horwill has passed a vital stage of his recovery from a broken foot with the removal of orthopaedic screws that have helped mend the Lisfranc injury.

However Horwill still faces time on the sidelines to allow the foot to mend sufficiently to support his 117kg frame around the field and jumping in lineouts.

"That (his size) is one of the reasons they left the screws in a bit longer than usual (to help the bones knit)," said the Wallaby lock, who hopes to be back playing by the halfway point of the Super 14 competition, which begins in mid-February. Horwill has joined the squad at its pre-season camp at Casuarina Beach in northern NSW but is sitting out the on-field activity.

Former Reds scrum-half Sam Cordingley was sidelined for a full season by a similar injury after a premature attempt at a comeback so Horwill is aware of the need for patience.

"I'm still aiming for (a return to rugby) sometime in March but we definitely want to make sure the foot is right because they (Lisfranc injuries) can take a while to heal properly. It feels really good at the moment but we'll have to wait and see."

With Horwill's recovery on track the Reds are hoping the rugby gods will also continue smiling on inside back Berrick Barnes, who is recovering from a posterior cruciate ligament injury that forced him out of the Wallaby tour of Europe.

Having spent time in a knee brace Barnes is now back running under the supervision of the Reds' athletic performance staff and joined the rest of the squad for a post training swim at Casuarina Beach. While Barnes looks optimistically at playing against the Blues in a pre-season trial in Auckland on January 30, Head Coach Phil Mooney thinks the February 5 trial against the Western Force at Ballymore is probably more realistic, ahead of the Reds' opening match of the Super 14 against the Bulls in Pretoria on February 14.

"The medical opinion at the moment is that his rehab is on track," Mooney said. "He's run fairly well here (Casuarina Beach) at training, so the indications are that he will probably be right for the last trial (Feb 5)."

Barnes says some of the new faces in the 2009 Reds' squad have brought real speed to match the likes of Wallaby wings Peter Hynes and Digby Ioane and he's itching for the opportunity to help unleash them.

"We've got a couple of young speedsters out wide that's going to be exciting," Barnes said.

"The fullback spot is obviously going to be hotly contested. You've got (former Canberra Raiders fullback) Mark McLinden, Rodney Davies, who's just come from league and he has got some jet shoes, and Aidan Toua (from the QAS Reds Academy). We definitely have some speed out wide, but it's up to us in the key positions to get the ball out to them."

While the Reds squad of 2009 is relatively young, Barnes said they're not raw rookies. "Guys in key positions have played a couple of years now, so it's key for us to take those leadership roles and really do something with it."

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