Scott Baldwin missed Ospreys’ 44-25 defeat to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Friday.
News emerged that the Welsh international had been forced to withdraw just an hour before kick off because of a hand injury. As has since become clear, it turns out the circumstances surrounding how he acquired the injury are slightly more interesting…
Earlier in the week, Ospreys had visited Weltevreden Game Lodge, with some of the team posting pictures of themselves holding lion cubs to their social media pages. While there, Ospreys’ boss Steve Tandy has confirmed that Baldwin was bitten on the hand by a lion – explaining his withdrawal from the game against the Cheetahs.
Tandy wasn’t too impressed with his player, either…
“There was an incident with a lion, it’s nothing to do with the lion in all fairness to it, but he did bite Scott,” he explained.
“When you put your hand into a fence and there’s a lion there, you can expect to get bit. He had plenty of warning, so it’s pretty stupid on Scott’s behalf. He’s pretty lucky.
“It’s nothing to do with where we were, it was a good environment, we’d been told how far back to stand. I don’t know what sort of wildlife programme Scott has been watching, [that says you can] pat a lion as if it’s a kitten.
“It’s probably one of the silliest things I’ve ever been involved in,” he continued. “Thankfully he’s okay and hopefully he’ll be back up and running in the next couple of weeks.”
Tandy also added that Baldwin had only required a couple of stitches after the incident.
