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Bath Rugby have lost loosehead prop Scott Kirk to a toe injury, which could sideline him for a couple of months, leaving Johann van Graan desperately short of senior options in the specialist position.
With Scotland international Jamie Bhatti sidelined into the New Year with a broken forearm he suffered in the club’s final pre-season game away at Glasgow Warriors, Kirk, 22, has played in all six of Bath’s competitive games this season, primarily as a replacement with England international Beno Obiano the first choice in the number one jersey.
Providing an update on Kirk, Bath head of rugby van Graan said:
“We've lost Scott Kirk with a toe injury on Friday night. “He's gone for a scan. It's the same type of mechanism as Billy Sela's injury. “It's not as serious. I don't have a specific timeline for you. We've got to see how he reacts in terms of the recovery process. “It could be four weeks, it could be eight weeks. I'm not in a position to say right now, but it's not a one or a two-weeker. You won't see him in the PREM Cup in the next month.”
Van Graan said that, with the plan always being to use the PREM Rugby Cup as a development competition, the medical department’s aim will be to try and get both Kirk and flanker Sam Underhill, who is out with a bicep injury, back to face Bristol Bears in the league at the start of December.
However, the South African did not rule out turning to the transfer market if necessary, with his options running short in such a key position in the front row.
He said:
“We're going to back our squad. We've got some young players here that have come through our system. That's something that we are very proud of over the last five years. “We've brought in players from the outside, but we've also brought players through from the bottom. “I'm not saying that we won't bring in somebody in time, but it's such a short turnaround again. All the national players are away till Thursday [in international training camps ahead of the Nations Championship], so we're going to back what we have in our squad.”
Van Graan has moved quickly to bring young Welsh prop Ioan Emanuel back from his season-long loan with Cardiff, but Theo Malik remains with Aberavon.
Van Graan said:
“Ioan played for Cardiff RFC on Saturday, so the plan was always for him to come back for the Prem Cup. So, Ewan is an option for us. And then Claudius Wheeler, if you think back, he played in the warm-up games. He also played last year in that warm-up game against Worcester. “We'll make some decisions later in the week. And if it comes down to it, Jacob Yates has actually done pretty well for the uni, so that's another option that we might look at as we go.”
With Sale Sharks coming to the Recreation Ground on Saturday in Round Five of the Gallagher PREM, Obano could face a big shift for the hosts, with the visitors likely to select a pair of international tightheads in Wales’ Tomos Francis and England rising star Asher Opoku-Fordjour to provide a real challenge at scrum time.
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