Armitage shoulder injury is a headache for boss Johnson
FULL-BACK Delon Armitage looks set to miss England’s autumn internationals after suffering a suspected dislocated shoulder in London Irish’s thumping victory over Gloucester.
Armitage, 25, has been a major player in Martin Johnson’s England revolution but left the field after scoring a try in the Exiles’ 40-10 victory.
“Delon has a suspected dislocated shoulder and he’s gone to hospital. We’ll know more on Monday,” coach Toby Booth said. “He’s a tough cookie, but I’ve no idea how long he’ll be out.”
Armitage helped the Exiles to their first victory of the season after two scores from Sailosi Tagicakibau and a penalty try ensured they recovered from last week’s opening game defeat by Saracens at Twickenham. Ryan Lamb kicked 20 points for the Exiles, while Charlie Sharples was the only player to score a touchdown for Gloucester.
In the other match, Newcastle had to settle for a second successive draw as two late Lee Thomas penalties earned Sale a 16-16 stalemate at Kingston Park. Thomas kicked three penalties and converted Mark Cueto’s superb try in an otherwise scrappy encounter.
Rob Vickerman scored his first try for the Falcons while Jimmy Gopperth kicked 11 points. The fly-half, however, could have wrapped the game up with two missed penalty kicks, leaving coach Steve Bates frustrated. He said: “We should really have won two out of two, we created far more pressure than Sale and we should have finished it off.”