Stewart flies out as cover for Mcinally

Scotland’s tour captain Stuart Mcinally travelled to Canada on Monday with an injury concern, it emerged yesterday.

The stand-in skipper suffered a calf injury on the eve of the team’s departure to their Vancouver training camp and will continue to be assessed by the medical staff, the SRU confirmed.

Although Mcinally remains with the squad, uncapped 23-year-old Grant Stewart has been called into the touring party as cover for the three Tests which see Gregor Townsend’s side take on Canada in Edmonton on Saturday 9 June then the United States and finally Argentina.

Stewart, who is contracted to Glasgow and has made seven appearances for the Warriors this season, has progressed through the age groups of Scottish rugby and is currently in the BT Sport Academy. He will compete with Fraser Brown and George Turner for a Test place should Mcinally fail to prove his fitness.

Stewart has been a bit of a late developer in what is an intensely competitive position and has played most of his rugby for BT Premiership side Glasgow Hawks.

The former Strathaven and Dalziel player was man-of-the-match in the Premiership promotion/

relegation play-off win for Hawks over Jed-forest at the start of the month.

After making his Warriors debut in a pre-season friendly against Northampton Saints, Stewart was drafted in to Glasgow’s European squad earlier this season when coach Dave Rennie was hit by an acute hooker shortage through a combination of injuries and suspension.

Mcinally’s injury would be a further blow to the Scots, who are already without regular skipper John Barclay, who suffered a long-term Achilles injury in Scarlets’ Guinness Pro14 semi-final win over Glasgow, while Greig Laidlaw has also been rested.

The hooker has emerged as a key player for Scotland after bouncing back from a poor 2016-17 season to play a starring role for both his resurgent club Edinburgh and Scotland in both the autumn Tests and Six Nations.

Before leaving for Canada, Mcinally described his elevation to tour captain as the “pinnacle” of his career.

The 27-year-old will hope the untimely calf problem is not another stroke of bad luck after suffering his fair share down the years. He narrowly missed out on a cap in his previous life as a back-rower when he was an unused sub against South Africa in 2012, then had to miss the first World Cup warm-up Test against Ireland in 2015 with a stomach bug on the eve of the game. He did win his first caps in the back-to-back summer Tests with Italy but then injured his neck in a weights session, which ruled him out of the 2015 World Cup squad.