Danny Cipriani had Gloucester “praying” for him after he limped off injured as Northampton were put to the sword.
The England fly-half celebrated a new long-term contract by inspiring the Cherry and Whites to their first win for six years at Saints.
Cipriani pulled the strings expertly and the visitors had a four-try bonus point in the bag long before he was forced off nursing his groin with half an hour to go.
Gloucester boss Johan Ackermann said: “We play Bath on Saturday and we hope and pray Danny is ready for a short turnaround.
“Hopefully we took him off in time. It’s a groin, a hip-flexor. We’ll scan to see the extent of it.”
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The last block of matches Cipriani missed through injury coincided with a dip in form for Gloucester.
With four games of the regular season left and a play-off semi-final at Saracens almost within reach, they can ill-afford a repeat.
“Everyone knows how important Danny is to the way we play,” said Mark Atkinson, who became the first Gloucester player in Premiership history to score a first-half hat-trick.
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“That’s why when he was saying ‘I’ll see how this (groin) goes’, we were pushing him off. Nobody wants to lose a player like Danny for more than a week.”
Ackermann admitted Cipriani’s loss influenced his side’s attacking fluency which until then had proved devastating.
Atkinson, who had scored only seven Premiership tries in eight years, had three in the bag inside 39 minutes.
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Cipriani’s clever miss-pass put him in for the first, a training ground move brought an impressive second before Willi Heinz and Jaco Kriel combined to give him his treble chance.
If it was a day to remember for the 29-year-old, who had dropped out of the top flight in search of game time earlier in his career, it was one Northampton will want to forget.
They did salvage a four-try bonus point but it came at a heavy cost with injuries to Lewis Ludlam, Luther Burrell, Alex Moon and, most worrying of all, Heinrich Brussow.
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Brussow has a history of concussions and Saints boss Chris Boyd said he expected this latest head blow to end the Springbok flanker’s season.
NORTHAMPTON - Tries: Naiyaravoro, Francis, Reinach, Marshall, Hutchinson. Cons: Biggar 2, Francis.
GLOUCESTER - Tries: Atkinson 3, Ackerman, Slater, Marais. Cons: Twelvetrees 5.
