Injury blow as fly-half Evans is ruled out,
GLOUCESTER Rugby’s first choice fly-half Lloyd Evans is set to be out for several weeks after injuring his ankle in the 31-26 defeat to Northampton Saints on Saturday.
Head coach George Skivington must now rely on either playing centre Billy Twelvetrees in the 10 shirt, which of course he has done previously on many occasions, or hand the jersey to 20-year-old academy stand off George Barton, who started against Lyon earlier this season in the Cherry and Whites’ record Heineken Champions Cup defeat.
With former England international Danny Cipriani having left the club in December, his long term replacement Adam Hastings is not arriving until the summer from Glasgow Warriors.
Discussing Evans’ injury status, Skivington said: “Lloyd is not great.
“He was going to see another specialist today, he is going to be out for a period for sure.
“It is not ideal obviously, but we have invested in Lloyd and he is going to be great for the club going forward, it is just very unfortunate the timing.
“From his point of view we will get him the best medical care we can and sort him out and get him back as quick as we can but it is not going to be the next couple of weeks.
Skivington revealed the club are not closing the door on bringing in short-term injury cover but have not made moves to do so yet.
He added: “Right now we will use the options we have but we will have to review and sit down and work out do we need to bring someone else in as short term cover. We have got Adam [Hastings] coming next year, but that is next year.
“That is something we will discuss going forward over the next few days.”
In December Skivington revealed Argentina international full-back Santiago Carreras has experience and ambitions to play at fly-half but he is going through the HIA return to play protocols after taking a blow to the head at the weekend.
If Skivington continues to not select players who have been unavailable to train, that will rule Carreras out of the trip to London Irish on Saturday.