Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has drafted in a number of reinforcements to his Six Nations squad after the final round of European group fixtures took its toll on his squad, with first-choice openside flanker Hamish Watson the biggest concern.
Watson proved key to Scotland’s performances last year but the Edinburgh back-row has withdrawn from the squad after suffering a suspected broken hand during Friday’s Heineken Champions Cup victory over Montpellier.
The 27-year-old was forced off during the impressive victory and head coach Richard Cockerill admitted it looked like a fractured hand, with a specialist scan on Monday set to determine the extent of the damage.
Townsend does not yet know if Watson will be back in contention for any of the championship, which begins on Friday 1 February, but he looks certain to miss the opening clash with Italy as well as the visit of defending champions Ireland to Murrayfield the following week at the very least and he is also likely to miss the trip to Paris on 23 February to face France.
Glasgow pair Jonny Gray and Ryan Wilson are also concerns after both suffered shoulder injuries in the defeat by Saracens on Saturday, while centre Sam Johnson suffered a concussion in the same match, leading to uncapped back-rows Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh) and Matt Smith (Glasgow) being added to the squad along with forward Rob Harley and centre Alex Dunbar (both Glasgow).
However, assistant coach Mike Blair insisted that both Gray and Wilson will be in contention for the opening weekend, and added that Gray had been able to train in a non-contact session to ease fears over the 47-cap lock.
"Definitely," Blair said. "They've got bumps and bruises and we will obviously wait to see how they clear up but at the moment it's not something that we would be hugely concerned with."
