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Wallabies lock Izack Rodda has been ruled out of the Rugby World Cup with a foot injury, coach Eddie Jones told reporters on Friday.
“Yeah, that’s bad luck for him. He’s had those couple of foot injuries. He’s just reaggravated it. Unfortunately, he won’t participate in the World Cup,” Jones said.
Rodda, 26, has played 25 Tests for Australia since 2017.
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Jones will name his Rugby Championship squad on Sunday before the opening Test against the world champion Springboks in Pretoria on July 9 (AEST).
He said prop Angus Bell, who is recovering from his own foot injury, “probably won’t be available for the first game.”
But star prop Taniela Tupou (Achilles) and centre Samu Kerevi (hamstring) remained in the selection mix.
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“We’ll just have to wait and see. He’s progressing nicely,” Jones said of Tupou.
“He’s done a lot more training this week than he did the previous week. We’ve got a plan for him and at the moment the plan’s going pretty well.”
As for Kerevi, who strained his hamstring playing under Jones with the Barbarians: “He’s flying today, mate. He should be back into full training next week.”
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Jones said he was pleased with what he saw from an extended train on squad in Coogee this week.
There were plenty of welcome selection headaches.
“Well, it’s always a difficult process. You’ve got probably 45 players competing for 33 spots, so that’s always difficult but that’s the job ahead,” Jones said.
“We’ll sit down after we’ve finished here and work out who the 33 are… some people rise above the water level and some people drop down and we’ll make an assessment.”
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