Gregor Townsend has yet another injury concern ahead of the Six Nations with Darcy Graham picking up a groin problem while playing for Edinburgh.
The Scotland wing will miss Friday’s Challenge Cup encounter against the Scarlets after sustaining the issue in the clash with Gloucester last weekend.
His club are still assessing the severity of injury but head coach Sean Everitt is not necessarily optimistic over his prognosis.
“Darcy picked up an injury against Gloucester last weekend. Unfortunately, he’s been plagued by injury since coming back from the World Cup,” Everitt said.
“We’re not sure of the extent of that. We just hope it’s not as bad as what it could be.”
Everitt also gave an update on youngster Harry Paterson, who was recently named in the squad for the first time but misses out on Friday’s Challenge Cup clash.
“Harry picked up a shoulder niggle in that game. He’s just carrying a few aches and pains and we thought it would be good for him to have a rest this week. So we’ve sent them for scans for precautionary reasons,” Edinburgh’s boss added.
Graham has only played four times since the global tournament and his lack of game time is a worry for Townsend and Scotland, even if he does make the start of the
.
He joins Glasgow Warriors’ Rory Darge on the sidelines, for their tournament opener against Wales.
Darge would be a guaranteed starter if fit but, according to Glasgow head coach Franco Smith, the openside is in a race to against time.
“He’s going into week four [of his rehabilitation],” added Smith. “That was a six to eight week injury that could come down to six weeks.
“But we will hand him over to Scotland next week and it will be up to them to decide how they want to deal with that.”
Darge’s international back-row team-mate Jamie Ritchie has also endured a couple of injury problems.
Firstly, a shoulder issue sustained in the World Cup kept him out for a month before he took a knock to the jaw in late December.
Ritchie has returned to the bench for Edinburgh’s game with the Scarlets, but the flanker is under pressure to perform if he wants to retain the captaincy.
Scotland have yet to announce their skipper for the Six Nations and Townsend has stated that the 27-year-old needs to prove his form and fitness.
However, that is not a concern for Everitt, who says that he has not discussed the matter with the national team head coach.
“I haven’t spoken to Gregor about the captaincy,” he added.
“I don’t get involved in the international discussions at all.
“There is pressure on rugby players all the time. Jamie has been around long enough to know that he just needs to focus on the job at hand.”
