British & Irish Lion Alex Corbisiero has played down any injury concerns surrounding his knee, the prop insisting his current knee problem is unrelated to last year’s problem.
Corbisiero struggled with a knee injury throughout last campaign and had to miss this year’s Six Nations as a result but he recovered in time to tour Argentina with England this summer.
But after the Lions suffered a slew of injuries at loosehead the 25-year-old was called up to the touring party in Australia.
And the England star had quite an impact with a try in the decisive third Test win that sealed the first series win for the tourists in 16 years.
This season Corbisiero has joined Northampton Saints from London Irish but suffered a knee injury in their Heineken Cup clash with Castres that has ruled him out of the Australia clash in the autumn internationals.
However, he expects to return in time to face Argentina on November 9 and has played down any concerns that he might have a long-standing problem.
“This latest problem is just bad luck really – it's on my other knee that I haven't had any issues on for a long time,” he said.
“There has been a lot dragged up about the past. I had an issue last year with my right knee but have worked very hard to come back from that.
“Rugby is a contact game and sometimes injuries happen. I got it caught in contact in the Castres game during a carry and twisted it. It reacted and swelled a bit.
“It was scanned and there was nothing serious, but we're progressing cautiously to ensure there are no further issues.
“This is unrelated to the problem I had last year and hopefully it should be cleared up soon. It's just unfortunate that it's the same area of the body as before.”
