AFTER talking about his worries that injuries could batter his World Cup planning, Vern Cotter, the Scotland head coach, has seen his squad emerge from their narrow defeat in Ireland with less damage than he had feared.
The main worry at the time had been over Ryan Grant, who had been carried off on a stretcher after damaging his right ankle and taken off to hospital for an X-ray. Now the medical bulletin is back and the good news for Grant and Cotter is that there is no break, though it will take further tests to establish exactly how long he is likely to be out of action.
With five weeks to the first World Cup game, he would have every chance of recovering from any minor damage in time to take part in the tournament, though it is highly unlikely that he will get over it quickly enough to feature in any of the remaining warm-up matches.
The issue for Cotter is that losing Grant will force him to use the remaining three looseheads in the squad, Alasdair Dickinson, Gordon Reid and Allan Dell, more than he intended. If one of them went down as well, that would cause a major problem with loosehead resources down to the bare minimum.
Elsewhere it is looking better. Jon Welsh, the other prop, did come off with concussion but was back to normal before he arrived home and is going through the usual protocols to clear him to play. Fraser Brown, the hooker, also came off with "discomfort" in his hamstring and Kevin Bryce, his Glasgow Warriors teammate, has been added to the squad as a precaution, but there does not seem to be much serious worry. Finally Hugh Blake, the debutant flanker, dislocated a finger, but was back in full training yesterday.
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