Thomas Waldrom to miss Aviva Premiership final with ligament injury

Exeter Chief number-8 Thomas Waldrom will be missing his team's Aviva Premiership final against Saracens on Saturday after sustaining a knee ligament injury.

Waldrom sustained the injury during the semi-final encounter against Wasps in the second half of the game which his team went on to win by 34-23 at Sandy Park and is expected to be sidelined for 12 weeks.

The former England international had a phenomenal 2015-16 season and is among the top try scorers, scoring 12 of it in the 22 games. However, in the play-off on last weekend, the 33-year-old was named on the bench with Don Armand taking his place in the starting line-up.

Exeter back row Armand revealed that Waldrom was annoyed with himself for missing the big occasion and further added the team is motivated to win the Championship for their star back-rower.

"It's really horrible for someone like 'Tank' especially, who puts so much time and emotion into the team and you can see that by the way he plays," said Exeter flanker Armand.

"We're definitely going to miss him. He's been really upset this week and that just shows what the team means to him.

"There are definitely boys playing for him, as extra emotion and motivation.

"There are plenty of motivations already of course, but that certainly adds to it, and it's quite high up on the priorities.

"No one wants to miss the big occasion, that's what everyone works towards.

"But that's just rugby unfortunately, that's just how the game works."

Despite, losing Waldrom, Exeter will be boosted by the news of their scrum-half Will Chudley being cleared of charges after involving in a kicking incident with Wasps lock Joe Launchbury in the play-off.

Chudley appeared before a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel in Bristol on Wednesday after which it was declared unintentional.

Happy with the process conducted by the disciplinary panel, Exeter coach Rob Baxter is relieved to have Chudley available for the all important clash against Saracens on Saturday.

"The incident was seen by the television match official, and although that wasn't put down by the citing commissioner, it was seen, it was looked at in detail by the TMO who decided in his opinion it was accidental contact and didn't feel he should bring it to the referee's attention," said Baxter.

"There was an angle that wasn't shown on TV, that does show pretty clearly that the ball is available for Will to play, it was open, it was quite fair for him to have a play of the ball.

"And his leg does receive a pretty big deflection off Matt Mullan's knee and thigh as he puts his foot in, which brushes it against Joe's head.

"And Wasps' officials and management after the game were great: they didn't think it was a particularly bad incident, and they were prepared to report that after the game and to the disciplinary panel.

"And Joe Launchbury himself put in a very positive statement in support of Will that he didn't feel it was anything other than a very minor incident and didn't really think anything untoward had happened at the time either.

"Will Chudley, a guy who has never had a yellow card in his professional career and is one of the least penalised players in the Premiership, can play in the final. And I think everyone would agree that's a good result.

"To be fair to the whole process probably after what happened and the initial angle shown on TV, I can completely understand why the citing commissioner put it forward. And on that basis it was probably a correct citing.

"But now the result's happened it's important everyone understands what the process was.

"The process was very thorough, they obviously had different angles that weren't shown on TV and weren't discussed."