Boss Dean Ryan has confirmed that young back row forward Ben Fry and versatile centre Adam Warren both face time out of action after picking up injuries in the victory over Benetton Rugby.
Director of Rugby Ryan revealed both Fry (bicep) and Warren (groin) will miss the rearranged Guinness PRO14 clash with Glasgow Warriors on Saturday and are now set for surgery.
“Back row is an area of strength for us but he is a young man who has pushed himself into the mix,” said Ryan discussing Fry’s injury.
“It's a huge blow to his momentum and development. We are pleased with where Ben has been, what he has learnt and how he has been going.
“Coping with injury is the next challenge that he has to face and we hope to get him back as soon as we can.
"Wazza's injury is reasonably serious as well," he added. "It looks like a groin injury and will be significant amount of time.
"Obviously going into this game there was a concern for us. Nobody can say what the programme is for quarantine players and what the time frame is when we come back out of quarantine.
"I know we lost the Edinburgh game because we felt that was too tight in terms of timelines and we did have a week’s run at it, but they are significant injuries at a time that we are returning to play.
"We will certainly look at how we can do things because it is very apparent that it’s a challenge we are in the middle of and we need to make sure we get things right in preparing."
Tighthead prop Lloyd Fairbrother will also miss the weekend’s game in Scotland after a head injury in the opening five minutes in Italy.
"It’s too tight a timeline," added Ryan. "We are going from a Sunday night to a Saturday evening and it will be wrong to chase that for Lloyd. We need to make sure he’s right so that rules him out."
Coping with injury is the next challenge that he has to face and we hope to get him back as soon as we can...
