Ollie Smith could miss a year after Glasgow Warriors and Scotland full-back suffers ruptured knee ligaments

Smith says injury came when player was running during Bayonne clash

Glasgow Warriors and Scotland have been dealt an injury blow with the news that Ollie Smith has been ruled out for up to a year.

The full-back ruptured ligaments in last week’s win over Bayonne in the Champions Cup and a scan has revealed the extent of the damage. “He has suffered a serious knee injury,” said Franco Smith, the Glasgow head coach. “It will be an eight to 12-month injury. It’s more serious than we hoped and it was confirmed on Wednesday night that he has ruptured ligaments in his knee. There was no contact, he was running and it just happened. Quite strange.”

The Prestwick-born player seemed to catch his foot in the turf while running with the ball and went down in obvious pain. He was clearly in some distress and will now miss the rest of the season and probably the start of the 2024-25 campaign. He is the third Glasgow player to suffer a serious knee ligament injury in recent months, with Fraser Brown and JP du Preez also ruled out for the long term.

Glasgow Warriors' Ollie Smith has been ruled out for eight to 12 months with a knee ligament injury. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Smith, 23, had established himself in the Scotland set-up over the last 18 months and was the youngest member of Gregor Townsend’s squad at the Rugby World Cup where he played in three matches. The retiral of Stuart Hogg before the tournament in France left Smith and Blair Kinghorn as the only two recognised full-backs in the national squad although Huw Jones and Darcy Graham can cover at 15.

While Smith is primarily a full-back he was playing on the wing in his team’s Champions Cup victory in France. Josh McKay was at 15 and will retain the jersey for Friday’s 1872 Cup match against Edinburgh at Scotstoun, with Jones moving from centre to wing to replace Smith, and Stafford McDowall returning to the side to link up with Sione Tuipulotu in midfield.

Edinburgh have named Darcy Graham in their starting XV for the first time this season after the Scotland winger recovered from hip and knee injuries. There is a place on the bench for Emiliano Boffelli who has not played since injuring his toe with Argentina at the World Cup.