Bristol Bears full-back Charles Piutau missed arguably the biggest game in the club's recent history on Friday night as he was sidelined with an Achillies issue when his side beat Bordeaux Begles 37-20 in the semi-final of the European Challenge Cup.
The victory sets up the club’s first ever European final on October, 16, just over three weeks away where they will play Toulon who beat Leicester Tigers 34-19.
However before then Bristol have at least two huge Gallagher Premiership games as they look to move up from fifth place in the table and into the play-off places, claimed by the top four sides at the end of the season.
The Bears host Leicester Tigers on Wednesday and then travel to London Irish, who are playing at Harlequins’ Twickenham Stoop stadium, on Sunday, October 4, to complete a run of three games in 10 days, needing to win them all.
So the question is how long will Piutau be out?
Speaking about the injury to Piutau, who was seen in a protective space boot on the sidelines on Friday night, Lam said: “It’s been giving him a bit of trouble for a while now, he’s been trying to get through it but we will just keep assessing, same with Henry [Purdy].
“Henry’s hamstring was pretty tight at training."
Former All Black Piutau has been sidelined with an Achillies injury before, injuring it just before he moved from Ulster to Bristol back in the summer of 2018. The full-back then missed the start of the Bears' 2019-20 campaign, which began with four Premiership Rugby Cup games, as he nursed his Achillies.
The Bears playing 100 minutes on Friday night, with the match going into extra added time as the scores were tied at 20-20 after 80 minutes, Lam did not think his side had suffered any further injury issues heading in to a busy week in the Premiership when he spoke to the press after the match.
He said: “So I think them along with everyone else, we’ve just got to reassess where we are at and pick our strongest team following the normal routine of major injuries and I don’t think there’s any out there today.
“We will check the niggles and try and get the balance right to make sure that we have every opportunity, we are going to need a win and a bonus point.”
Piutau was ably replaced by Max Malins on Friday who scored two tries to walk away with the man of the match award in the Challenge Cup semi-final.
Accessing Malins’ performance, Lam said: “He did well, like all of them.
“I’m not always big on the man of the matches, I think people see and what we see is different, don’t get me wrong Max was terrific but so many guys were and we go through and look at all the moments that matter to us.
“I think we work on the depth of the group, you know (John) Afoa, Yann Thomas, Dan Thomas, Joe Joyce, Piers O’Conor these are quality players and they could easily have started as well and that’s what we want, we want competition and depth, and there’s still a lot of good players in the stands there watching the game.
“Everyone’s excited and it’s a huge squad effort.”
