Edinburgh trio Robin Hislop, Mark Bennett and Wes Goosen are all set to miss Friday night’s Challenge Cup pool decider at Scarlets through injury, with Hislop likely to spend some months on the sidelines, according to head coach Sean Everitt.
Prop Hislop and centre Bennett both sustained knee damage in the 21-20 defeat by Gloucester on Saturday, while Goosen, who was playing on the wing, injured a quad.
“Robin Hislop’s knee injury definitely looks like a long-term one, but we haven’t had the results back from his MRI yet,” Everitt said yesterday. “Wes and Mark had their MRIs this morning. They won’t be available [on Friday], but we still don’t know the extent of their injuries.”
Darcy Graham is a doubt with a minor problem, but his fellow-winger Duhan van der Merwe will be back after being allowed to miss out last week in order to attend his twin sister’s wedding in South Africa. “Darcy got a quad niggle early in the game - I saw him go down,” Everitt added.
“He struggled a bit through the 80 minutes, and he’s also a guy that’s under examination at the moment. We’ll have a clear outcome of that tonight. It’s just short-term.
“Harry Paterson will be involved on Friday. Whether he starts or is on the bench depends on the outcome with Darcy.”
Paterson was a replacement on Saturday and was called into action after just five minutes because of the injury to Goosen. He can play at full-back or on the wing, but is likely to play in the latter position, with Emiliano Boffelli again taking the No 15 jersey.
Edinburgh will be guaranteed a place in the last 16 of the Cup if they beat Scarlets with a bonus point. Anything less and their fate will depend on results elsewhere. Scarlets are bottom of the pool and can no longer qualify for the knockout stages.
