HAVING limped off the pitch early in Glasgow Warriors’ defeat of Exeter Chiefs on Saturday, George Turner was yesterday confirmed as the latest front-row forward to be ruled out of Scotland’s plans for the forthcoming Six Nations Championship, while there is also a doubt over lock Richie Gray’s involvement in the opening match.
In the absence of clubmate Fraser Brown, whose propensity for picking up head knocks means he is the subject of ongoing medical examination and with Ross Ford, Scotland’s most-capped hooker, having been out of action since the autumn, the 25-year-old had looked to be in line to understudy Edinburgh’s Stuart McInally, who is certain to be in the starting line up for that tournament opener in Cardiff next week.
Instead, having been recalled to the squad for the first time in four years, 36-year-old Scott Lawson looks set to be on the bench in The Principality Stadium, while fellow veteran Neil Cochrane, who is still uncapped at the age of 34, has been reintroduced to the squad to provide cover as he was in the autumn.
"George is out with a medial knee ligament injury. So, he's going to be out for around eight weeks,” said forwards coach Dan McFarland. "He has obviously been doing well. He came back from a ban, played at the weekend and is now out with an unfortunate injury. I feel really sorry for him. He's gutted."
Previously the forwards coach at Glasgow and before that with Connacht, McFarland admitted to never having encountered so many availability issues in one department of a team as he has this time around with five props also currently injured – Ali Dickinson, Willem Nel, Zander Fagerson, Alan Dell, Darryl Marfo – while another, Simon Berghan, is suspended and yet another, Rory Sutherland, having been left out of the squad because he has only recently returned to action after a lengthy absence.
As another who has just returned from a lengthy injury which meant he missed the autumn Tests, Gray’s form for Toulouse had been hugely encouraging in recent weeks, but the British & Irish Lion has picked up a knock that prevented him from taking his place in the squad.
Under World Rugby protocols the Scotland management could have insisted on him travelling to join them yesterday if they wanted their own medics to assess the damage, but Toulouse could similarly have told him to return to France to play next weekend and the common sense solution was to avoid asking him to travel when he would not have been able to train.
“"Richie has a calf issue. He's in France at the moment. We're hoping he'll be joining us at some point in the near future,” said McFarland. “Hopefully it will be relatively soon. We were disappointed for Richie. When you think of all the time Ritchie took to come back from his [back] injury. He has played over the last two or three games and has been looking athletic. He was getting round the park as if he had never been away from that.
“There were bits of his game he was looking to improve and we had been in contact over those things. He was looking in a really good position to step on. We would have liked to have seen him play this weekend but it looks like he won’t. That was a disappointment.”
For all that a much shorter journey would have been involved, the same approach was taken to Gray’s former Glasgow clubmate Alex Dunbar, another of those who was hurt during the bruising encounter with Exeter, suffering a head injury.
“He did not train today and he is not with us. We are hoping he will be joining us, too. He is in the return-to-play protocol,” said McFarland.
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