Widnes away!

Quote: El Diablo "Probably none, I'm not really sure how rational such concerns would be. But I always found playing on artificial pitches tougher on the ankles (somewhere halfway between grass and the sprain-a-thon sports hall floor). I also find that once healed, ankle ligaments are also slightly stiff for a while, especially when you first get back into playing (there's no substitute for that in my experience, so another week probably makes no odds really).

In the end far better qualified people than me will make that call. My doubt stems from the fact that when you send a recently healed ankle out onto a grass surface you have a wealth of experience and even some trial data to base your risk assessment on. Much as an athletics coach will draw on lots of information about the same injury on track and road (you'll get much more pain on a track, but probably less risk of real damage). The knowledge on how they react on a 3G pitch is much less. It's more absence of the ability to make your risk assessment properly than any specific property being a concern.

Like I say, I'll trust the judgement of the medical staff. That's what they're trained and paid for.'"

I see where you're coming from and of course this is rugby where sudden changes of direction are the norm ... not like running where I used to prefer to re-start training after a sprained ankle on the smoothest surface I could find to avoid turning it again, which was track or tarmac, regardless of the hardness of the surface.