With Lee Jones having been officially ruled out of Saturday's match against Italy as a result of the severe concussion he suffered during Scotland's defeat by Ireland, three players have been called into the squad to provide additional cover.
For 24-year-olds Alex Grove, the Worcester Warriors centre who has three caps, and Jack Cuthbert, the Bath full-back who won his solitary cap to date against Ireland in the World Cup warm-up match last August, it is a chance to kick- start their international careers while Peter Murchie, the 26-year-old Glasgow Warrior who can play those both positions, has yet to be capped.
That suggests some cause for concern over the condition of Stuart Hogg, who has shoulder and groin problems and Max Evans, who has a calf injury, albeit they, like Mike Blair, who also picked up a shoulder knock and John Barclay who has rib damage, were deemed to be fit enough to do some training yesterday.
Nick De Luca, the Edinburgh centre who pulled out of the Ireland match with a hamstring problem, was also described as "making progress."
Jones' injury was by far the most alarming since he was clearly unconscious before he hit the ground which his head then struck extremely hard after a clash of heads with Andrew Trimble, but he has now been allowed to return home to Selkirk. "He is doing well," said James Robson, Scotland's team doctor. "He will have a few days' rest and recovery and will be assessed later in the week."
The team to meet Italy will be named today.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article