Lydiate can make the British & Irish Lions Tour

Newport Gwent Dragon blindside flanker Dan Lydiate’s hopes of making the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia are not over according to his regional coach.

Lydiate suffered a broken left ankle on Friday night in the RaboDirect Pro12 win over Edinburgh.  He has undergone surgery and is expected to be out for around four to six months meaning he will miss the autumn internals in November and likely the whole of the 2013 Six Nations.

The 24 year old faces a race against time to be fit ahead of the end of the season in order to prove his fitness to British & Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland ahead of the tour.

However Dragons coach Darren Edwards thinks Lydiate will stand a good chance of going on the tour given that Gatland is already very familiar with his qualities “I think that he is helped by Warren being in charge – he doesn’t need to be told how important Dan is to a team and he doesn’t need to see how devastating he is in defence,”

“It’s an extremely disappointing injury for Dan because of what is on the horizon but he will do everything that he can to be in the running for the Lions.

“If he came back earlier than is being predicted it certainly wouldn’t shock me because I don’t think Dan’s desire to recover quickly can be questioned.

“We saw in the World Cup (after an injury to his right ankle) that he came back ahead of schedule because he is such a good pro.  He has been so unlucky with injuries through the years but has come back stronger every time.”