Elliot Daly to miss initial stage of Aviva Premiership
Elliot Daly, pictured, will miss the start of the Aviva Premiership season with Wasps resting their star asset
©PA
Wasps rugby director Dai Young has confirmed that Elliot Daly will miss the initial stage of upcoming Aviva Premiership season in order to manage his workload following a gruelling British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand.
The 24-year-old has featured in 36 games overall last season at both international and club level including seven out of the 10 games that Lions played in New Zealand.
Young, who has scripted the turnaround for the Ricoh Arena outfit that saw them reach the final in the previous season insisted that Daly needs to be given time to recover from a hectic schedule.
"The recommendation has always been five weeks off and four weeks of pre-season," said Young of the rules around resting top stars.
"That leaves Elliot unavailable for the first two games of the season, and from my point of view that's something we'll adhere to.
"We've done it with all our internationals. Everyone has to have five weeks off, whether they play club, international or whatever.
"We think Elliot needs a rest really, otherwise he's not going to last the season.
"I think you've got to be sensible and put the player first."
Another causality for Wasps ahead of their season opener against Sale Sharks is the injury to James Haskell, who will need time until October to recover from a finger surgery.
"James has had an operation on his finger, it kept breaking and dislocating," said Young.
"It got to the stage where it was just dislocating over everyday tasks.
"It was going to cause real problems for the joint, so he had a scan and had to have an operation.
"He can do his running training, but he's not going to be available until the end of September."
Sam Jones will remain in the injury list as he suffered a broken leg during the England's training ahead of the autumn internationals campaign last year while Tommy Taylor will continue his rehabilitation phase from a knee surgery.
Jones will miss the starting stages of 2017/18 season while Taylor is sidelined until Christmas.
