Bath's walking wounded: eight players on the mend but all roads point to the new season
Bath Rugby will start the 2026-27 season with a treatment room that is clearing rather than filling, after five players underwent shoulder surgery over the summer and three long-term absentees edged closer to full fitness.
Louis Hennessey, Tom de Glanville, Will Muir, Tom Dunn and Sam Underhill each had shoulder procedures during the summer of 2026 but are all expected to be available for the start of the new campaign, according to the BBC. That is the kind of medical bulletin a head coach wants in August — clean, finite and done.
Two longer-running sagas are also nearing resolution. Prop Will Stuart, an England international, has not played for Bath since suffering an Achilles injury in December 2025. Number eight Jaco Coetzee has been out almost entirely since April 2025, when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament — the knee ligament that typically sidelines players for the best part of a year. Both are expected back for the 2026-27 season BBC Sport.
Wales prop Archie Griffin should return during the opening block of the season after missing his country's four summer internationals following surgery. Loosehead Beno Obano, meanwhile, was still working with Bath's medical staff after pulling up with a hamstring injury while playing for England against South Africa — an issue that forced him out of subsequent Tests against Fiji and Argentina BBC Sport.
For a club that challenged on multiple fronts last season, getting this many bodies back at once is no small thing. Bath's squad depth was tested to its limits during the run-in, and captain Ben Spencer embodied the frustration. The scrum-half — the player who directs play from the base of the scrum and ruck — dealt with a shoulder problem that had kept him out since 10 April, and then later required ankle surgery with no set timeframe for recovery, according to the club's website. Spencer eventually made his return to the starting XV against Exeter Chiefs at the Rec, Bath's home ground, on a Friday night.
The wider picture for Bath supporters is one of cautious optimism. Shoulders repaired, knees rebuilt, hamstrings managed — the hard medical work is largely behind the squad. The question now is how quickly those players can find match sharpness once the whistle blows for real.
Jargon note for newcomers: a "loosehead" prop is the left-hand side of the front row in a scrum, the set-piece restart where eight forwards bind and push. A "scrum-half" is the link between forwards and backs, feeding the scrum and distributing the ball. The "Rec" is Bath's home stadium, properly the Recreation Ground.
With eight players at various stages of recovery, Bath's medical team will earn their keep in the opening weeks. But the direction of travel is clear: the injury list is shrinking, not growing, and every name on it has a date with the new season.
