The British and Irish Lions are facing mounting issues at tighthead ahead of their summer tour to Australia after Zander Fagerson withdrew from the squad.
The Scottish prop was as expected named in Andy Farrell’s initial 38-man touring party announced last month, expected to compete with Ireland stalwart Tadhg Furlong and England’s Will Stuart for a starting Test berth Down Under.
However, the Lions announced on Monday that Fagerson, 29, had been ruled out of the entire tour with a calf injury as the rest of the squad - without the players set to feature in next weekend’s Premiership and URC finals - assembled in Dublin before travelling to Portugal for a six-day training camp.
The Glasgow front-rower has been replaced by Ireland and Connacht’s Australian-born prop Finlay Bealham.
The Irish Independent reported over the weekend that concerns were growing over Lions veteran Furlong’s availability for the tour after an injury-plagued season in which he suffered the recurrence of a calf problem that limited him to just one appearance off the bench in the Six Nations.
That could leave Bath star Stuart as the frontrunner for the No3 shirt for the first Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane on July 19.
He will be joined in Portugal by Jamie George, the England hooker and former captain who was among the most high-profile omissions from the original squad but had been expected to be added at a later date to join Dan Sheehan, Ronan Kelleher and Luke Cowan-Dickie.
Another new name linking up with the Lions in Portugal is Asher Opoku-Fordjour, the highly-rated young Sale Sharks tighthead who earned his first senior England cap against Japan in the autumn and will now hope to leave an impression on Farrell as his side prepare for their 1888 Cup clash with Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on June 20.
“It’s tough on Zander to miss out so close to the Tour, but now Finlay gets an opportunity to come in and add to the group,” head coach Farrell said. “This is unfortunately part and parcel of the game, so we always have to be prepared for that.
“But it’s great to finally be at the stage where we can get onto the training ground and get to work with these players.
“Portugal will be really important for us as we look to get our house in order with only a few training sessions before we take on Argentina in the 1888 Cup in Dublin.”
