Instead of preparing for
Friday's Test against Samoa and a sixth Scotland cap, Tom Philip is facing knee reconstruction surgery and nine months of intense rehabilitation after a seemingly innocuous accident on the beach left him with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
Matt Williams, the Scotland coach, said the damage was done in a collision with Dan Parks, but Philip revealed that it happened when he ran into Simon Webster and Andy Henderson during a two-on-one defensive drill.
Although there was an intense, immediate pain, that quickly subsided and there appeared to be nothing seriously amiss until Scotland's doctor realised Philip's knee was unusually ''loose'' and referred him to a specialist.
The subsequent scan showed the 20-year-old had suffered a rare form of knee injury, which involved rupturing the ligament but not damaging its protective capsule.
As a result, Philip had been walking pain-free around the hotel before the Brisbane specialist, who treated Andrew Mower at the World Cup last year, advised he would require full knee reconstruction.
''It was heartbreaking to be told how serious it was. It's one thing to be going home from the tour, but quite another to be out of the game for so long,'' Philip said yesterday.
''I had an operation on my left knee to repair medial ligament damage and remove some cartilage earlier this season, and that was just five or six weeks out, but what can you do?''
Philip will be the fourth player sent home from the tour in what Scotland's experienced doctor James Robson described as one of the busiest weeks he could remember.
Cameron Mather's twisted ankle and Robbie Kydd's smashed cheekbone ruled them out of the tour, Euan Murray failed to shake a thigh injury while scrum-half Mike Blair has been carrying a shoulder concern all week.
Ben Hinshelwood will start at outside centre after Williams was forced into a reshuffle.
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