Hogg to miss Euro games
Scotland full-back Stuart Hogg is set to miss Glasgow’s European Champions Cup double header with Montpellier Herault as he continues to recover from a hip injury.
Hogg pulled out of the last November Test against Australia when he aggravated the problem in the warm-up for the 53-24 win at BT Murrayfield.
The 25-year-old will definitely miss Friday’s visit of Vern Cotter’s French league leaders to Scotstoun and is unlikely to feature in the return the following weekend as Warriors look to keep their slender hopes of progression in Europe alive after losing
their opening two games in Pool 3. “Stuart won’t be involved this week,” confirmed Glasgow assistant coach Kenny Murray yesterday. “Obviously we are still assessing the injury in terms of how long he might be out. It might be a matter of weeks. It’s just one of these things.”
Hogg has suffered a flexor tear and, with the start of the Six Nations just two months away, Murray was asked if it would be weeks rather than months on the sidelines for Scotland’s star player.
“Yeah that’s definitely what we’re hoping,” said the coach. “The medics will see how he goes over the next week or two and see how he’s recovering but he won’t be involved this week. We’ll see how he goes but probably the likelihood not the week after either.” Scotland hooker Fraser Brown will also miss Friday’s match but there is more hopeful news on George Turner and Pat Macarthur. “Fraser won’t be involved this week. He’ll start his protocol at the start of next week with a view to being available the following week,” explained Murray.
“It’s just because he’s had a few head knocks in a certain window of a certain period of time and we just need to manage it more than if it was just a one-off. Fraser being Fraser he’s raring to go and buzzing to play but we just need to follow the protocols.
“He’s doing a bit of cycling this week and he’ll do his return to play next week.”
Turner had to come off against Cardiff last Friday following a high tackle from Taufa’ao Filise, who will face a Guinness Pro14 disciplinary hearing tomorrow after receiving a red card for the infringement.
Meanwhile, Scotland are back up to their highest placing of fifth in the World Rugby rankings, benefitting from Wales’ win over South Africa at the weekend.
Scotland hit fifth for the first time when they beat the Welsh in the Six Nations and leapfrog the Springboks after November wins over Samoa and Australia.