Neck injury forces Holmes out of Spring Tour

Australian Wallabies prop Greg Holmes has withdrawn from the Wallabies Spring Tour of Italy and the UK with a neck injury.

The 23 year old prop was unable to participate in any scrum sessions during the first two days of the Wallabies four-day camp in Sydney, opting to pull out of the tour after this morning’s team run at Victoria Barracks.

The 2006 Wallaby rookie of the year has failed to recover from the injury, which he sustained during the team’s Coffs Harbour training camp earlier this month.

“It’s still very sore and hasn’t settled down like I’d hoped,” said Holmes.

“It’s extremely disappointing. I tried mauling this morning and couldn’t do that (without pain) so I didn’t bother packing into a scrum,” he said.

Holmes, who was rested from the Wallabies final Tri Nations clash with South Africa in order to get a head start on his preparations for the Spring Tour, described his own decision to withdraw from the squad as “crushing”.

“I’d put on five or six kilos in the gym over the past five weeks and I’m feeling great. Getting an injury like this is a huge let down,” said Holmes.

Holmes said that he did not want to go on the tour under a fitness cloud.

“I had to make a hard decision. There was no point going over (to the UK) and hoping that it would come good and allow me to play at the back end of the tour,” he said.

“You want to go over knowing that you’re going to be fit to play the majority of the games.”

The specialist loosehead from Warwick in Queensland hoped the injury would not prove to be a major setback ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup.

“It is a set back after what I’ve been able to achieve this year, but hopefully it’s nothing serious and I’ll be able to get back into training with the Reds for the pre-season,” he said.

“The tour will be very important as far as giving players the chance to put their hand up before the World Cup but I’ve got to put that behind me and just focus on treating the injury and playing well for the Reds.”

Holmes will return home to Brisbane tonight for scans on his injured neck, while his place in the 37-man Wallaby Spring Tour squad has been filled by Brumbies prop Nic Henderson.

Henderson joined the Wallabies camp in Sydney today after resuming pre-season training with the Brumbies on Monday.