SCRUM-HALF Cameron Setter is hoping to recover from an ankle injury in time to make Plymouth Albion’s trip to Loughborough Students on Saturday.
Setter missed Albion’s 30-10 win over Wharfedale last weekend after picking up an injury in the opening minutes of the club’s defeat at Ampthill.
Albion are desperate to have him available as they are seriously short of backs. They were only able to field one – Jon Dawe – on the bench against Wharfedale, with Jake Murphy and Elliot Bale also injured, Seti Raumakita suspended and Ethan Ford having returned to Australia.
“Hopefully, if the physios think they can strap the ankle up then, fingers crossed, I can play,” said Setter, who has been a key player for the club this season.
“We’ll just have to see how it goes, but we’ll make the call Thursday night.”
He added: “Initially, I couldn’t really walk on it, but it seems to have healed quite quickly.
“What made it take a bit longer was bruising all over it, so I couldn’t really get to it to fix it, and all my muscles went really tight.
“At the moment I have been able to do quite a bit on it, but it does tighten up quite quick. Hopefully, though, I will be able to last more than 10 minutes.”
Albion go into Saturday’s match knowing their hopes of a top three finish are over after the club had 30 points deducted for going into administration to enable a takeover to happen.
Setter says the whole situation over the last few weeks has been unsettling but he says the players just want to end the season on a high.
“With the points coming off and all the things going on behind the scenes, I think we are just looking to have fun and play for each other,” said the Plymouth-born 22-year-old.
“We’d like to win our remaining games and would like to put one over on Hartpury and Richmond because we don’t want to let them get promoted too easily.”
He added: “The points coming off has massively dampened the mood, but I think we responded against Wharfedale and hopefully we can do that again this week and push on.”
Setter admitted the players are still unsettled as they do not know if they have a future at the club or not. The new owners told them in a meeting prior to the Wharfedale game that they were not yet in a position to make any guarantees on contracts.
The players are also concerned that the new owners have not publicly said they want to keep Graham Dawe and the rest of the coaching staff.
“We had a bit of a chat with the new owners last week and were reassured on a few things, but we still don’t know what we are going to do next year,” said Setter.
“It gets to the end of April and we don’t get paid again, so that is a little bit worrying. In theory, I’m out of a job come May 1.
“If something else comes up then I’m going to have to take it without listening to Plymouth, which is a little bit annoying.
“I just want to enjoy my rugby. I’m enjoying it around here at the moment. I have really enjoyed this year, but it is out of my hands.”
When asked if the players had been given a timeframe when the club might be able to make players offers, Setter said: “They said end of the season and said they wanted to keep us all but it is almost a little bit too late because other clubs give you a deadline.
“The sooner we could know the better. I think we all just want to know one way or the other.
“There have been clubs come in who are interested in me. I have had a few Championship clubs come in, but I can’t really do anything until I know what’s happening here.
“Next year this club could go massively on the up and push on, but I can’t be part of it if they don’t offer me anything.
“Also I could be holding on and holding on but if they don’t want me then I’m back to square one looking for a job.
“I know we are losing Billy (Searle) but with the squad we have at the moment if we could keep a good core of that then it would only help us next year.”
Before committing, most of the players would also want to know who will be coaching the team.
“I have found the coaching this season has definitely helped me,” said Setter. “I have really enjoyed working with Graham (Dawe) and Simon (Lane). If they go it is back to ‘who’s the new guy coming in?’ and you have to start again getting relationships going.
“Everyone just wants to know sooner rather than later before it is too late.
“All the boys have enjoyed themselves here with the coaching staff.
“We have had such a successful year as a group that if you start splitting that up then the club is back to square one and back to where we were 12 months ago, when we had just the four of us turning up. It would be very difficult to start again.”