Blair in reckoning for Edinburgh despite recent illness

Published on Wednesday 1 October 2008 23:58

EDINBURGH are confident skipper Mike Blair will recover this morning from an illness which has kept him out of training this week.

Ironically, Blair was rested last weekend as Andy Robinson, the head coach, strives to keep his internationalists below a 32-game limit this season. But the Scotland captain is understood to have picked up some form of gastro-bug which explains his absence from official photocalls.

After missing a team photo on Tuesday the scrum-half was due to front the announcement at Murrayfield yesterday of a dinner in Aberdeen jointly-sponsored by Cornelian Asset Management and Johnston Carmichael, and supported by the Scotland team, to raise money for the Murrayfield Centenary Fund, which helps seriously injured players.

Allister Hogg deputised, but Edinburgh insisted that Blair was recovering and would be included in the squad to fly out today to Belfast for tomorrow night's Magners League match with Ulster.

The Edinburgh team is due to be announced before the team leave Edinburgh Airport and the expectation is that Blair will be fit to start as the team bid for only their second win of the season.

Meanwhile, former Scotland Under-21 coach Jono Phillips will soon be vying for honours with Todd Blackadder, the former Edinburgh captain, after he was appointed assistant to Colin Cooper with the Hurricanes Super 14 team for 2009-2010.

Phillips, also a former Caledonia academy manager, is currently a technical advisor to the Hurricanes and also works as a talent identification and development manager for the franchise across the Wellington city and wider district.

Blackadder recently took over as Crusaders coach with Daryl Gibson, the former Glasgow centre, alongside.