Cardiff Blues coach Dai Young revealed Wales centre Tom Shanklin’s career is hanging in the balance as he attempts to recover from knee surgery.
Shanklin missed the 2011 RBS 6 Nations after picking up the injury in the Blues’ match against Aironi having featured throughout Wales’ autumn series.
The 31-year-old’s career has been dogged by injury but Young is keeping his fingers crossed that Shanklin, who has won 70 caps, will overcome this latest setback.
“Tom has said it’s a nasty injury and it all depends on how his rehab goes,” said Young.
“Tom’s had the first part of his rehabilitation. And we will see how that progresses before he makes any decision whether want to continue playing or not.
“Our fingers are crossed that hopefully he’ll recover from it and get playing. Only time will tell, it’s early days and obviously that decision is further down the road.”
In some better news for the Blues, Wales internationals Leigh Halfpenny, Bradley Davies and Chris Czekaj have joined Jamie Roberts and Sam Warburton in putting pen to paper on new contracts at the Cardiff City Stadium.
And Young says keeping their prized assets is the first priority for the Blues to establish themselves as a true force in the Magners League.
“They are players who are very important to us,” he added. “These boys are quality players.
“We’re really pleased with their development and how they are moving forward.
“And we’re really pleased as well that they want to be part of the Blues for the next couple of seasons.
“It’s important we move things forward and important as well when you are rebuilding that you are retaining the quality you have got.
“Where they’ve obviously been youngsters over the last couple of seasons, now they are going to have to start being leaders and senior players among the group.”
