Darcy Graham ruled out until Christmas with ruptured bicep, ending Scotland's autumn hopes

Darcy Graham will miss at least 12 weeks after rupturing a bicep muscle in Edinburgh’s pre-season friendly against Harlequins last Friday, ruling the Scotland wing out until Christmas and ending his involvement in the autumn Nations Championship campaign.

The 29-year-old initially appeared to suffer only a contusion in a collision during the match, but a subsequent MRI scan confirmed the more serious rupture. Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt confirmed the timeline on the eve of the club’s URC opener at Ulster, with Graham set to miss the club’s first nine matches of the season as well as Scotland’s November Tests against New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

“Darcy got a contusion on his bicep in a collision on the weekend. He was training on Monday to then get the MRI report that he’s ruptured his bicep,” Everitt said. “That’s not good news for us and not good news for him, especially with the autumn series coming up. Those things are freakish.”

The injury compounds an already severe back-three crisis at Edinburgh. Fellow Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe is sidelined until mid-October with an ankle problem, Wes Goosen is out for several weeks with a hamstring injury, and full-back Harry Paterson also misses the trip to Belfast after being forced off against Harlequins with an ankle issue. Scotland Under-20s wing Jack Brown, a potential cover option, will be absent for 12 to 16 weeks following surgery on a torn knee ligament. Everitt begins the season with 16 players on the treatment table.

Edinburgh will start their URC campaign with Malelili Satala and new arrival Geordie Gwynn — primarily a centre — on the wings at Ulster.

For Graham personally, the setback continues a damaging run of injury misfortune. He missed both the 2023 and 2024 Six Nations after damaging knee ligaments in late 2022, the latter absence requiring surgery for quad and groin problems. A late call-up to the British & Irish Lions squad in Australia in 2025 ended after just 10 minutes of his debut when he sustained an ankle injury.

Graham had appeared to be returning to his best form, extending his Scotland try-scoring record to 38 tries in 57 Tests with four scores in the final three matches of this year’s Six Nations. Under the current timeline, he will not add to that tally until 2027.

“It’s not an injury that you can rush a player back from,” Everitt added. “Some players heal quicker than others. [Christmas] would be the worst-case scenario for us and I have to prepare that way.”