George Furbank's England woes: appendix ruled him out
The Northampton full-back missed a 15th England cap after emergency appendix surgery, then fell ill again on the flight home from South Africa.
George Furbank has had two Premiership winners' medals with Northampton, but where England are concerned the 29-year-old full-back cannot catch a break. He has 14 caps to his name — only one more than his former Saints teammate Henry Pollock, who is 21 — and the latest setback cost him a first involvement in 18 months.
Furbank was in line to win his 15th cap against South Africa in July. He woke up feeling off colour the day before the match and was sent for a scan by the team doctor. The results came back at 7pm on the Friday: he would need his appendix out the next day.
"[The pain] wasn't too bad because it hadn't burst, it wasn't agony," Furbank said. "What I told the boys was that it felt like I had really bad trapped wind. It felt like my stomach was cramping a bit so I was hoping I would get to the hospital and then just fart and leave. It wasn't agony but it was pretty uncomfortable. After the operation I had come to terms with it a little bit more but, before, it was tough to hear that I was going to miss out again."
The trouble did not end with the operation. Furbank had to stay behind in England's Johannesburg hotel after the rest of the squad flew home, too soon out of surgery to travel. Then, on his own flight back, a stomach bug put him back in hospital in the UK.
"On the flight back I actually ended up getting diarrhoea and vomiting," he said. "So I was back in hospital when I got back to England because they were worried it was to do with the operation. Thankfully it wasn't. It would be nice to put a run of games Together and not have something go wrong."
Pollock, the teammate Furbank's cap tally still edges out, has been the subject of separate talks at Franklin's Gardens this month, with director of rugby Phil Dowson saying the club is seeking a "happy medium" on a new contract. Furbank's own path back into the England squad now depends on staying fit through the domestic season — a run of games he has rarely managed to string Together in recent years.
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