Scots winger suffers knee surgery blow

SCOTLAND and Ospreys winger Nikki Walker has been forced to have surgery on the injured knee that ruled him out of the World Cup.

Walker appeared to have a leading chance of making it into Andy Robinson’s final squad, but was stretchered off with medial ligament damage in Scotland’s last World Cup warm-up fixture against Italy at Murrayfield.

Hinting that Walker was in his plans, the Scotland coach said at the time: “Nikki has worked exceptionally hard in training and some of the running lines he made yesterday when he came off the bench were first-class.

“We all feel for him but injuries do happen and you just have to deal with them. We wish Nikki a speedy recovery.”

Walker, 28, will be eager to get back in an Ospreys shirt to stake his claim for a starting place in next year’s Six Nations campaign, but it looks like he will need to be patient as he battles back to fitness.

Walker is on crutches and the Opsreys are unable to set a target date for his return. The Ospreys have Wales World Cup wingers Tommy Bowe and Shane Williams as likely first-choices for the Heineken Cup, but Walker’s absence is likely to mean chances for youngsters Kristian Phillips and Hanno Dirksen.