Injuries create Cup headache for Glasgow

ANOTHER week has brought another double injury blow for Glasgow with free-scoring winger DTH van der Merwe ruled out for six weeks and prop Moray Low facing over two months on the sidelines.

Both players suffered injuries in Friday night’s win over the Italians Zebre. Canada wing Van der Merwe pulled up clutching his hamstring in the act of breaking out of his own half and setting up Graeme Morrison for what proved to be a decisive try in the match. Low was injured attempting to fly-hack a loose ball on the ground only for an Italian player to come down on his leg.

It was confirmed yesterday that the Scotland tighthead has sustained medial ligament damage to a knee. The prognosis for van der Merwe is up to six weeks rehabilitation, which takes him out of the first two rounds of the Heineken Cup, but, for Low, medics estimate a recovery period of between eight and ten weeks.

That is better than was feared at the weekend as the camp waited to find out if he would require surgery to repair the damage. He does not and so should be able to return before the end of the year, but the injury still ruins his hopes of returning to the Scotland squad for the autumn Tests and threatens his involvement in rounds three and four in the Heineken Cup in December. Head coach Gregor Townsend is already without his Scotland scrum-half Chris Cusiter until the turn of the year and will also open his first Heineken Cup campaign without four key forwards, Jon Welsh, Pat MacArthur, Ed Kalman and Rob Harley.

He acknowledged: “DTH and Moray are both important players for us, so it’s clearly disappointing to have them unavailable over the next few weeks. The news isn’t as bad as it could have been though, and I know both guys will be working extremely hard to return to the field.”

The injury news is a fresh blow to Townsend’s plans for success in both the RaboDirect PRO12 and Heineken Cup, with games against last year’s finalists Ulster, former champions Northampton and French club Castres to look forward to. However, with Josh Strauss, Niko Matawalu and Tongan prop Ofa Fainga’anuku all having arrived at the club and begun the process of settling in with their first squad involvement last week, and All Black Angus Macdonald making a first start against Zebre, Townsend is hopeful that the new-found strength in depth will prove its worth.

The Warriors’ bid for a fourth successive league win this Saturday away to Cardiff Blues, before heading to Townsend’s former club, Northampton, to kick off their European campaign the following Sunday.