'Long road' back for England's Lawrence - Bath boss

Ollie Lawrence sat on the medical car being taken off the pitch during England's game against Italy — Ollie Lawrence has started almost every game for England and Bath the past two seasons [Reuters]

England and Bath centre Ollie Lawrence faces a "long road" to recovery after undergoing surgery on a ruptured Achilles tendon, says his club boss Johann van Graan.

Lawrence was taken off on a medical cart eight minutes into England's Six Nations win against Italy on 9 March and Van Graan says "there is no timeline" on his return.

The 25-year-old has been almost ever-present for club and country during the past three seasons.

"That will be a long road, we'll work with Ollie to make sure he returns at the right time," Bath's head of rugby Van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol.

"Ollie's a powerful athlete and we need to make sure he returns with all of his power, but we'll work very closely with England and make sure we all look after Ollie - the care given to him has been fantastic over the last few weeks."

Lawrence has started all but one of England's past 17 matches, stretching back to the 2024 Six Nations, and has also started every one of his 44 games for Bath since signing in 2022 - only being substituted for a total of 32 minutes.

He was strongly tipped to make it into Andy Farrell's squad for the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in the summer.

"Injuries are such a big part of the game. I guess there's never a good time - this was a terrible time for him," Van Graan said.

"I thought he was one of our best players this whole season. He had something like three or four man-of-the-match performances in a row. That Leinster game, he was one of the best players on the planet that day.

"He's phenomenal for England. I thought he was very good in the Six Nations and Faz [Farrell] will select the Lions but, in my view, he had a very good chance.

"He's one of our most important players so [it's] not great to lose him but knowing Ollie he'll come back harder and stronger through this battle and we're all with him."

'We know there is expectation'

Joe Cokanasiga scores a try for Bath — Bath are six points clear at the top of the Premiership as they chase a first league title since 1996 [PA Media]

Premiership leaders Bath are also likely to be without winger Joe Cokanasiga when they return to league action this weekend after an eight-week break.

Cokanasiga went off injured last weekend as Bath ended a 17-year wait for a trophy by clinching the Premiership Rugby Cup against Exeter.

"Joe took a bang to the lower leg," Van Graan said.

"[I'm] not going to speculate on length [of absence], he's under the careful watch of Rory Murray [Bath head of medical] but hopefully it's not too serious and we see him back soon."

Bath are six points clear at the top of the table and take on West Country rivals Gloucester on Sunday at the Recreation Ground in a weekend of derby fixtures.

After being beaten in the final by Northampton Saints last season, Bath are in prime position to go one step further and win their first Premiership title since 1996.

However, Van Graan said the team are focusing only on their next match.

"We don't pay too much attention to the outside noise - we know there's a lot of speculation and people have got expectation and that's brilliant because people care about the club and they care about our team," he said.

"For us it's business as usual, [we] started at zero two days ago - control the bits we can, don't look beyond Sunday three o'clock."

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