Scotland receive fitness boost ahead of clash against England
Gregor Townsend’s Scotland squad has been strengthened
©Andrew Milligan/PA
Scotland have received a fitness boost ahead of the upcoming Six Nations encounter against England with WP Nel and Zander Fagerson returning to full training.
Scotland are currently at the fourth place in the table with a win and a defeat apiece in the two games. After a humiliating 34-7 defeat to Wales in the opening round, the Dark Blues managed to bounce back with a 32-26 win over France at BT Murrayfield Stadium.
Much to the relief of Gregor Townsend, Nel and Fraser have recovered from their respective injuries and are likely to feature against England in what will be a must win clash for Scotland. Hooker Fraser Brown has also shown satisfying progress but is unlikely to be available for the game against Eddie Jones' men.
Nel has been absent since suffering a broken arm in the autumn international opener against Samoa, while Fagerson picked up a foot problem at the start of January.
“He (Nel) is running around,” the Scotland head coach said. “He trained with us on Wednesday and we are just having a look.
“Zander trained with us today because Glasgow have a game so we will see how they get on this week and potentially next week we will be able to make a call on whether they are available, or it could be after the England game.”
On Brown, he added: “We hope he will resume full training next week, but that’s likely to be with his club but he should be back available pretty soon.
“It is a huge boost to have those experienced players in similar positions is a boost.
“The other is Richie Gray and we will know more this weekend whether he will be back full training too.”
Meanwhile, Richie Gray, who has missed out playing for Scotland for almost a year due to series of back and calf injuries was initially expected to miss the entire Six Nations tournament but Townsend is optimistic of his return for the final two games.
Townsend said: “He’s not with us, (but) he should know over the weekend whether he can resume full training.”
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