𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Wing Tommy Freeman is thought to have emerged as an injury doubt for the final British and Irish Lions Test against Australia.

Freeman had been set to start on the right wing for a third consecutive time in Sydney having been again named in Andy Farrell’s side as the Lions seek a 3-0 series whitewash.

However it is believed the 24-year-old may have suffered a back injury, and did not train fully during the captain’s run at Accor Stadium on Friday.

Any potential absence could leave Farrell short of options on the right wing with Mack Hansen still working his way back from a foot injury.

Assistant coach John Dalziel suggested that Freeman’s absence from training was precautionary and down to the heavy workload he has endured on the wing during the tour and across a long campaign for club and country.

“He was just doing the light walkthroughs,” Dalziel said. “Obviously it’s the last days of the eight weeks where we’ve trained almost every day as well with the turnarounds, so his GPS numbers [were high]. Wingers will do a lot of high intensity running so he had the morning off.

“He’s obviously got there doing the hard work. There’s no easy way to be a winger when you are chasing kicks and balls up in the air in the way the first two Tests have gone, so it’s quite easy for those guys to get their metres up.”

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Freeman has featured in 33 games across the 2023/24 season, including the two Tests in Australia so far and the Lions’ defeat to Argentina in Dublin.

He is one of a number of Lions stars to go past the RPA’s agreed limit of 30 games in a season for all PREM players, with Maro Itoje and Finn Russell also exceeding the mark.

If Freeman were to be ruled out, Hansen would be an option to come in along with the dropped James Lowe and Duhan van der Merwe.

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The Lions have named a six forwards to two backs bench split for the game at Accor Stadium, leaving Alex Mitchell and Owen Farrell as their only specialist backline cover. Dalziel believes, however, that the versatility offered by back row Ben Earl ensures sufficient options within the match day 23; the Englishman has already featured in the centres on this tour and was mentioned as a wing option by the coach.

“It’s probably just a little bit around the weather and the way the game unfolds,” Dalziel explained of the bench composition. “They’ve obviously got a lot of bodies back that they didn’t have in Test one, a lot of size around their pack, so we know that at the end of a three Test series it is going to start to take its toll. We just want the guys to go out there and empty themselves knowing we’ve got a good bench. And we’ve also got versatility within that six forwards. We’ve had Ben Earl feature in the centre and he can play on the wing, we’ve got enough skillset around that six/two to cover anything.”