The Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team man­agement are keeping their fingers crossed for the quick recovery of the injured players. The aim is to have them fully recovered before the Hong Kong 7s gets underway on April 5-7.

A major concern is captain, Kalione Nasoko who suffered a knee injury and needs to be treated immediately or else he could miss the Hong Kong and Singapore tournaments.

“We picked up a few unfortunately, Kali (Nasoko) had a reoccurrence of the carti­lage issue on his knee that got blown up so we’ll have a look at it this week, “coach Ga­reth Baber said.

“It’s too early to say that obviously he only did that on Saturday and had a flight back.

“This is a niggling cartilage issue on his knee.”

Nasoko is going to be attended to this Fri­day with the hope of having a scan to con­firm exactly where the damage is.

“It’s a cartilage for certain and again it de­pends on how much fluid your body gains beside your knee.

“Also what the recovery period will look like at this stage we’re making a suggestion of about three weeks but we will know more this week,” he added.

“It will be a hard push to get Nasoko to Hong Kong, he will be struggling but obvi­ously we will have to get him there.”

Robust prop Paula Dranisinukula took over the captaincy role when Nasoko was rested due to the injury.

Playmaker Waisea Nacuqu who sustained a fractured collarbone in Las Vegas is going to miss the remainder of the season.

Baber is also keeping a tab on playmaker Vilimoni Botitu who also can play wing and rover.

“Botitu took a couple of smacks on the back and having a lot of neck pain so we managed him through the second tournament.

“He is an incredible thing to think, he was an outstanding play maker,” Baber said.

“Losing Waisea (Nacuqu), I discussed the challenge in Vancouver and we probably lost him for the rest of the season.

“Those things are tough to take, he is such an influential player and Botitu is an influ­ential player as well.

“I think Botitu will recover obviously Wai­sea will not and I will touch on them.

“The rest are okay but there are a lots of humps and bumps as there is a lot of skin been taken off in the legs as well and bodies and that is tough.

“We know that’s part of the game and obvi­ously we will be okay when we go to Hong Kong,” he said.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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