It's really disappointing. It isn't just this very long-term injury, but the various ones he's picked up over his career, that make him so unlucky. If he'd have stayed fit, he'd have been in the England frame IMHO.
When he coached Glos to winning the JP Morgan 7s, to see him jumping about in the air with a massive grin on his face when the full-time whistle in the final went, was really emotional. To a lot of people, it's a "meaningless trophy", but you could see how much even the smallest amount of success meant to him.
On a positive note, both Gloucester and OM can come out with a lot of credit. OM has now been sidelined 21 months. He's clearly tried very hard to overcome this, and even flew out to America as recent as this last summer to see a specialist to try and speed along the recovery. And in all this time, Gloucester have stuck by him, probably sacrificing a big chunk of the salary cap in doing so, and are now going to take him on as part of the backroom staff.
And on another positive note, OM's wife is 18 weeks pregnant.
