England youngster Joe Cokanasiga injures shoulder as Red Rose suffer ANOTHER scare ahead of the World Cup
JOE COKANASIGA suffered a shoulder injury as he scored on his Twickenham return.
A month after the England star’s heroics against Italy the giant winger was back destroying defences at the home of rugby.
But this time the 21-year-old didn’t last past half-time as he was replaced at the break in the “West Country” derby win against bitter rivals Bristol.
After picking up the bonus-point win boss Todd Blackadder said: “Joe has an ac joint injury, it was a good whack, it is just really sore.
“These things can turn around quickly or take a while. You can see he’s a bit gingerly, but hopefully it’s not too bad.
“But that win was massive for us in the context of the season – we needed five points. We want to be competing for silverware and the Champions Cup and that is what it is all about.”
It was a big day for Bath’s heavy artillery as outside centre Jonathan Joseph scored his first try at HQ since November 2017.
He then set-up another for Wales centre Jamie Roberts in front of the 60,000-plus crowd.
World Cup hopeful Joseph, who missed all of England’s Six Nations, said: “What a privilege to play here at headquarters and at Twickenham, though next week we have a tough challenge against Gloucester. We have to get the wins.”
Bath fly-half Rhys Priestland celebrated signing a new two-year deal with the final score and three conversions as they closed the gap on fourth-placed Harlequins.
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Though Bristol picked up a vital bonus point as their no.10 Callum Sheedy rattled over four conversions as their rivals coughed-up endless penalties.
Impressive flanker Dan Thomas also scored in the comeback and Bristol boss Pat Lam added: “At 19-3 down it could have gone the other way, so we showed a lot of character to get a point out of it.”
Earlier, England suffered more injury trouble when Leicester Tigers announced scrum-half Ben Youngs had undergone season-ending shoulder surgery.