Original tour captain dislocated shoulder on 26 JuneTo be in contention for Test ‘he needs 20 minutes’As recently as a week ago no one could have imagined the
British &
Irish Lions would announce a matchday squad containing Alun Wyn Jones and Marcus Smith to face the Stormers on Saturday. Even Warren Gatland, who has made some eye-raising selections in his time, has never presided over a more rapidly changing Lions landscape.
In Jones’s case it just goes to show how far a relentlessly determined mindset and a ridiculously high pain threshold can take you. Three weeks after dislocating a shoulder against
Japan at Murrayfield, the original tour captain will be back in a red Lions jersey just over 48 hours after touching down in
South Africa.