Melbourne – Utility back Kurtley Beale may yet play a part in Australia's June Tests against Wales if his shoulder injury recovers in time, the Wallabies said on Tuesday.
Beale, who was injured in the Melbourne Rebels' loss to the Hurricanes in their Super Rugby match over the weekend, had surgery to clean out floating cartilage in his shoulder on Monday.
He was nonetheless expected to rejoin the Wallabies training squad after the team's match against Scotland on June 5, a Wallabies spokesman said.
“Then it's a matter of how he pulls up ... He could come back in time to be involved in the Wales series,” he said of the three-match series that starts in Brisbane on June 9.
Beale's injury saw coach Robbie Deans rush Quade Cooper back into the squad, despite the mercurial flyhalf playing less than two full matches of rugby for his Super team, Queensland Reds, as he battles back from a serious knee injury he sustained at the World Cup in New Zealand last year.
Cooper's Reds team mate and utility back Ben Lucas has also been drafted into the training camp in Sydney this week ahead of the Scotland test in the industrial port of Newcastle near Sydney.
The Wallabies play Wales in Melbourne on June 16 and Sydney on June 23.
Skipper James Horwill is a certainty to miss the four tests against Scotland and Wales, meaning lock Nathan Sharpe could win a 102nd cap while flanker David Pocock should be elevated to the captaincy. – Reuters