Gareth Anscombe: Wales and Ospreys fly-half ruled out for another year
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Gareth Anscombe joined Ospreys from Cardiff Blues for 2019-20, but injury means he has yet to play for them
Wales and Ospreys fly-half Gareth Anscombe has suffered another setback in his recovery from a knee injury and is not expected to play for a year.
The 29-year-old has not played since limping off against England at Twickenham in August 2019.
Ospreys had said he was unlikely to play in 2020 and Wales coach Wayne Pivac says he will miss the rest of the 2020-21 season.
"Gareth will miss the majority if not all of this season," said Pivac.
Wales have named specialist fly-halves Dan Biggar, Rhys Patchell and Callum Sheedy in their autumn squad with Sam Davies and Jarrod Evans missing out.
Pivac added: "It is a blow because he (Anscombe) is a quality player.
"He was playing a lot in the number 10 jersey for Warren Gatland) in the lead up to the World Cup.
"He had that injury which was devastating for a guy who wanted to go to a World Cup, and also for the team.
"To have him out for so long is not great, but he is working very hard and I have been talking to him today and he has been in the building here."
Pivac outlined the extent of the injury.
"He's had all his surgery done," said Pivac.
"He's had a little tidy up since the original surgery which has just set him back a little bit, but he's working hard and we're not going to rush him back.
"It's one of those injuries where a bit like Jonathan Davies, it's not worth rushing him back for the sake of maybe a tour or part of a season.
"At this stage we're not putting any pressure on the player. We're saying 'let's give it the season to get it right'.
"Now if he came right within that time frame then that's all the better, but there is no expectation on him to rush back for this season.
"It's one of those ones where it's about time and making sure he ticks each box as he goes along.
"One thing is, he is looking a lot bigger because he's got time to work on the rest of his body and when he does get back on the playing field, you're going to see a different beast."
Pivac allayed fears that Anscombe would not play again.
"I'm very confident he will get back," said Pivac.
"He's got leaders within our game and industry looking after him and they're saying he's got every chance of getting back to where he was.
"He's got to put a lot of hard work in but one thing about Gareth is that he's a very determined young man and he's determined to get back on the playing field as soon as he can."
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