Evans is doubt for autumn

WARREN Gatland will announce his Wales squad for the autumn internationals with Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac unable to confirm when prop Rob Evans will return from a head injury.

Evans has been sidelined since picking up a bump in the Guinness PRO14 encounter with Connacht on September 29.

Gatland names his line-up for the November Tests next Tuesday, but Pivac couldn’t be precise about when the loose-head will be fit to play.

“Aaron Shingler last year was about 12 weeks out, so, you know, how long’s a piece of string?” said Pivac, whose team are also missing John Barclay to a head injury.

“I just don’t know that we know enough about it yet.”

He continued: “We have protocols in place which we follow.

“At the moment both the boys are failing those protocols, so they can’t go on to the next step if you like, to get closer to playing.

“There are signs of improvement, but they’re taking a lot longer than the players themselves would like.

“The head injuries are what they are and both Rob and John are still recovering from those.

“As I say Rob is showing signs of improvement but he’s still got symptoms there. It’s just a slow process.

“We would like to think that it will be a matter of weeks rather than a matter of months and we are doing everything in our power to make sure that the right people are checking them out and we have got the players safety paramount.”