The injury concerns are mounting for the British and Irish Lions ahead of the First Test against Australia this weekend, with Mack Hansen now a major doubt.
The Ireland and Connacht star has impressed during the tour so far to stake his claim to rival the likes of James Lowe and Tommy Freeman for a starting spot on the wing against the Wallabies, only to suffer a foot injury during the final warm-up game against an AUNZ Invitational XV in Adelaide on Saturday.
The Lions are confident that Hansen’s issue is nothing serious, though he did not train in Brisbane on Tuesday and could sit out Saturday’s Test opener at Suncorp Stadium.
"Mack hurt his foot in the game. I don't think it's anything serious but he was managed today (Tuesday)," said attack coach Richard Wigglesworth.
"Hopefully he will be fully integrated pretty quickly. It's nothing that we are overly concerned about. We'll know a bit more tomorrow.”
The Lions already had concerns over Blair Kinghorn, the presumed Test starter at full-back who joined the tour late after helping Toulouse to retain their Top 14 title but was forced off early with a knee injury during last week’s win over the ACT Brumbies in Canberra.
"We'll have to see tomorrow what Blair looks like,” Wigglesworth said on Tuesday. “He hasn't trained fully with the squad but he's been on his feet so we'll know a bit more in the next 24 hours whether we can get him on the field.”
If Kinghorn isn’t fit, then Ireland’s Hugo Keenan would surely retain the No15 jersey for the First Test against Australia.
The Lions will definitely be without Garry Ringrose in Brisbane this weekend after he suffered headaches in the aftermath of that win over the Brumbies and failed a subsequent head injury assessment (HIA), requiring him to be stood down for at least 12 days, meaning he will not come back into contention until the game against a First Nations & Pasifika XV in Melbourne on July 22, four days before the Second Test at the MCG.
Luke Cowan-Dickie is also expected to miss the First Test after being stretchered off with a head injury in the first half of the emphatic 48-0 win against the AUNZ Invitational XV.
Head coach Andy Farrell has handed out a flurry of new Lions call-ups in recent days to swell the size of his squad to 44 players, with Jamie George pulled from the England team for the Second Test against Argentina in San Juan on Saturday in order to fly out to Brisbane following the injury to Cowan-Dickie, having already trained with the Lions this summer in Portugal and Dublin.
Ireland prop Tom Clarkson and versatile back Jamie Osborne have also been drafted in as cover in addition to the Scotland trio of Ewan Ashman, Rory Sutherland and Darcy Graham, who are cover for the game against the First Nations & Pasifika XV as Farrell looks to protect his Test players in the final midweek tour fixture.
The latest call-ups of players who had been in Fiji playing for Scotland at the weekend and due to feature against Samoa at Auckland’s Eden Park on Friday have led to comparisons with the so-called ‘Geography Six’, when former Lions coach Warren Gatland made headlines by calling up Kristian Dacey, Tomas Francis, Allan Dell, Finn Russell, Gareth Davies and Cory Hill during the tour of New Zealand in 2017.
The Lions have already lost both Tomos Williams and Elliot Daly to tour-ending injuries, replaced in the squad by Ben White and Owen Farrell respectively. Scotland prop Zander Fagerson withdrew before the trip Down Under, with Finlay Bealham added in his place.
England duo Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Jack van Poortvliet had also been training with the Lions before they left for Australia, along with George.
