Bristol Bears injury latest: Broken hand fears for captain Fitz Harding

Bristol Bears are away at Sale Sharks on the closing weekend of the 2025/26 Gallagher PREM

Pat Lam described how ‘he sat back in awe’ at the toughness of Bristol Bears captain Fitz Harding after the flanker played for nearly 70 minutes with a suspected broken hand during Friday night’s 21-19 comeback win over Bath Rugby.

Harding, who was in the thick of action throughout, scoring the Bears’ opening try as he bounced through a tackle from Charlie Ewels, now looks likely to miss Saturday’s trip away to Sale Sharks in the final game of the regular Gallagher PREM season, with the Bears having slipped out of play-off contention despite their victory last weekend.

Speaking post-match at Ashton Gate, Bears director of rugby Lam said: “He is a machine. I got a message after 10 minutes that they suspect that he might have broken his hand. I was getting ready to adapt and make the change, but Fitzy wouldn’t come off.

“At half time, they bandaged it all up, but I didn’t think he would last. To go the 80 minutes and play the way he did, making tackles, jackals and counter rucks, with that hand, it is just phenomenal. He is a machine.

“You never know, and we will get it scanned and X-rayed, but if it is broken, then we will all sit back in awe at the toughness of that guy.”

Harding became just the second Bristol Bears forward to score his 20th PREM try on Friday, joining Harry Thacker in having achieved that feat. The 27-year-old flanker has really grown as a try-scoring threat this season, dotting down nine times in all competitions in 2025/26.

Despite consistently being one of the top performers in the Gallagher PREM, a full England cap has evaded him. The closest he has come is skippering the England A side earlier this year.

Lam said he believes Harding still has a higher ceiling he can reach. He said: “I believe he can play better because everything he gets asked to do and challenged on, he responds to. He is just that sort of guy. They [England] wanted him to improve his turnovers and jackalling, and he has ended up as number one in the league.

“Steve [Borthwick] has been in touch with him, but Fitz understands there is competition there and all he can do is keep knocking at the door.”

Bristol’s backrow resources look set to be tested for the trip to Sale with Argentina international Santi Grondona, and tighthead prop George Kloska, both failing Head Injury Assessments in the first half against Bath which will rule them out of selection heading to the CorpAqu Stadium.

The Bears went into the derby victory over Bath without the services of Fijian number eight Bill Mata [ACL], Argentina international Benjamin Grondona [pectoral muscle], and former All Black Steven Luatua, who continues to battle back from a hamstring injury he suffered against Toulouse back in April.