Exeter's Tom Hooper Targets England Test After Shoulder Setback

Tom Hooper is hoping to play for Australia against England the following week, and he has been talking about the injury that delayed his return. The Exeter Chiefs player, who has 25 caps for the Wallabies, is in the squad for Australia's Nations Championship tour of the UK in November. The Nations Championship is the annual series of tests between the top international teams, and the Wallabies are Australia's national side.

Hooper fractured a shoulder blade while playing against Ireland in July. Speaking to the Guardian, he described his time in rehabilitation, the long process of rebuilding strength after an injury, as a blessing in disguise. It gave him the chance to get stronger, he said.

He is 6ft 6in tall and weighs 125kg, which is about 19st 9lb. Those are big numbers in a sport where size counts for a lot, especially in the tight contests for the ball at scrums and lineouts. Hooper is still building back to full fitness, and the tour will be a test of that.

The 25-year-old grew up near Bathurst, a town in rural New South Wales, Australia, in a cattle-farming family. Hooper said his family's heritage is Cornish, which links him to the south-west of England, where Exeter is based. He arrived at the club about a year before the interview.

Life in England has been a change. Hooper said British weather was manageable, though he has only been through one winter so far. For a player used to the warmth of the Australian summer, that is a small but real adjustment, and it will be a bigger one if he stays in Devon through the cold months.

Exeter has a strong record of Australian players. The Guardian listed several who have played for the club, including Dean Mumm, Dave Dennis, Nic White, Scott Sio, Greg Holmes, Julian Salvi, Ben White, Mitch Lees, Lachie Turner and Len Ikitau. Rob Baxter, Exeter's director of rugby, leads the club's coaching and selection, and Hooper's path into the club has followed a well-trodden route for visiting Wallabies.

Hooper's own approach to the setback was simple. In his words, sometimes you just have to put up with a bit of pain and keep going. For a player trying to earn a place in an England-bound Test squad, that attitude matters as much as any stat on the page.

The tour starts with a stop in the UK, and Hooper's selection for the England match will depend on how his body responds in the coming days. For now, he is back in the group and working towards the next step.