Dallaglio sidelined for six months

LAWRENCE Dallaglio faces up to six months on the sidelines following surgery in Auckland yesterday on a broken ankle.

The Wasps back row was just 20 minutes into the British & Irish Lions’ tour opener in New Zealand against provincial side Bay Of Plenty when he suffered what team doctor James Robson described as a fractured dislocation of the right ankle.

As Dallaglio, 32, was stretchered off and taken straight to hospital in Rotorua, it became clear the Lions had lost one of its most influential players and leaders for the tour. Llanelli flanker Simon Easterby is due to join the squad today as a replacement, having been alerted to his call-up while waiting to board a plane at Shannon en route to Ireland’s tour of Japan.