ULSTER HEAD COACH Neil Doak will be anxiously awaiting the swelling to die down on a number of his players so that his medical staff can assess their fitness for the trip to face Scarlets in Wales next week.
The northern province kept their hopes of qualifying for the Champions Cup knock-out stages alive with a 24 – 9 win over their Pro12 in Kingspan Stadium tonight.
However, the injury count was rising long before their tally of pool points did.
“We got two guys back in Ruan [Pienaar] and Dan [Tuohy] this week, unfortunately we lost a few more,” Doak, rarely one to issue medical news before the official announcement, told BT Sport post-match.
“There’s a few battered bodies in the physio room, but we’ll just have to see how they react over the next 48 hours.”
Chief among his positional concerns must be inside centre with Stuart Olding removed at half time with a head injury and his replacement Stuart McCloskey also called ashore in the second half.
Add that to the sight of Wiehahn Herbst being helped off by physios, the clash of heads between Franco Van Der Merwe and Nick Williams (the former brought straight off, the latter limping off after a collision minutes later) and there must surely be opportunities for some fringe players next time out in Europe.
An injury report early next week will shed more light on how soon the quintet might return.
