Edinburgh address Ben White link, season-ending injuries and vertigo for Scotland cap

New signings Rhys Litterick and Charlie McCaig are set to miss the whole campaign due to Achilles and knee issues, respectively. The pair were both injured in Edinburgh’s pre-season game against Ulster earlier this month.

And Matt Currie, their Scotland international centre, has been ruled out for the foreseeable future due to vertigo.

Litterick, the tighthead prop signed from Cardiff, has already had surgery while McCaig, a centre recruited from Exeter Chiefs, will also have an operation. The club are unable to say when Currie will return.

No plans to go back to the market

It’s a cruel blow for the players first and foremost and also leaves Edinburgh short-handed for the URC season which begins for them with an away game against Zebre in Italy on Saturday.

Sean Everitt, the head coach, believes they have enough depth in their squad to cover the loss of Litterick, McCaig and Currie and has no plans to return to the transfer market.

“At the moment, we don't,” he said. “We've got four tightheads in our squad that are fit at the moment. And then we've got a young centre in Fin Thomson who's shown some good touches in the game that he's played and got quite a good few minutes when Mo [Tuipulotu] got injured against Connacht [last season]. So he played against one of the best, Bundee Aki, and he did really well in that position. So it will be great that he gets some opportunity and an opportunity to grow as an individual.”

Paul Hill, D’Arcy Rae, Angus Williams and Ollie Blyth-Lafferty will cover tighthead in Litterick’s absence but Edinburgh look more threadbare at centre. Tuipulotu is not expected to return to training until December due to the knee injury he sustained against Connacht.

Currie’s vertigo is not concussion-related

It leaves Everitt with two fit senior centres in James Lang and new recruit Piers O’Conor, with academy player Thomson providing back-up.

Currie’s case is a perplexing one. The club said that the vertigo was not concussion-related and first manifested itself during a pre-season training camp in London.

Will Jordan, the All Blacks full-back, was ruled out for eight months with similar symptoms in 2023 and Edinburgh are treating Currie with caution, although he is able to do some work in the gym.

“We've done a lot of reading and research on Will Jordan,” said Everitt. “He had a similar condition. So it is something that you cannot put a timeline on. So we'll just wait and see. It could be a week, it could be eight months like Will Jordan. We're not sure.”

Ben White link addressed

“So it must be a frustrating time for him but we are around him and supporting him and he's doing his rehabilitation. It's not as though he's not involved in rugby. He's doing conditioning in the gym and hand-eye coordination. So hopefully he'll be back sooner rather than later.

“There was no real source of the problem. It was something that happened outside of rugby. Matt was selected to go on the Scottish tour and it was fine. And then he pulled out with a knee [injury], something totally different.”

The problems don’t end there for Everitt. Ross Thompson, last season’s first choice stand-off, will miss the Zebre opener after picking up a toe injury in the friendly win over Ealing on Friday. With Cammy Scott also unavailable due to a hamstring problem, Ben Healy looks set to play at 10. The former Munster man has himself just returned from a knee tendinopathy issue.

“Ben will step up and hopefully continue in the form that he produced in the first URC season that I was here,” said Everitt, who will have Lions players Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman available for selection.

Meanwhile, the Edinburgh coach said there was “no news” regarding reports linking the club with Toulon scrum-half Ben White but he did admit they would be interested in any Scotland internationals who became available. White, capped 29 times by Scotland, is out of contract at the end of the season.

“There's no news on Ben White,” said Everitt. “We're interested in any international that we can bring back to Edinburgh, especially in a specialist position. But at this stage, there's nothing.”