Australia’s Quade Cooper ruled out of Rugby Championship with knee injury

Wallabies stand-off Quade Cooper will miss the remaining two rounds of the Rugby Championship because of problems with the knee he injured at the World Cup last year.

The 24-year-old joins a long casualty list for Australia, who face tough tests against South 
Africa in Pretoria on 29 September and Argentina in Rosario a week later to round off the four-nation competition.

Cooper, who has yet to regain his best form after his return from surgery on his right knee, had scans in Brisbane yesterday which revealed a “small chip of articular cartilage” on the joint. “While the injury will require an operation to clean up and is to the same knee that was operated on after last year’s Rugby World Cup, it is not a long-term injury and so may not rule Cooper out of the [November tour to 
Europe],” read a statement.

“A decision on the stand-off’s availability for that trip will be made once his rehabilitation is under way.”

Australia play England, Italy and Wales on their tour of Europe in November and early December.