Calcutta Cup injury fears for Scotland coach Vern Cotter

As England prepare to name their elite player pool for the upcoming RBS Six Nations tomorrow, Scotland coach Vern Cotter has a number of injury concerns ahead of his squad announcement next week.

Picture: Ian Rutherford

Glasgow centre Mark Bennett received further assessment yesterday on the shoulder injury he picked up in the defeat by Racing 92 on Saturday and, while there are hopes he could be fit for the Calcutta Cup opener on 6 February, it is a midfield worry that Cotter could do without.

Peter Horne is out for a couple of weeks with a foot injury and fellow Warriors centre Alex Dunbar is battling back from a hamstring complaint which is his third injury in less than a year. With Richie Vernon also out with a shoulder injury, the crisis is more immediately pressing on Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend ahead of Sunday’s must-win trip to Northampton Saints in the European Champions Cup. In Paris on Saturday, Scotland stand-off Finn Russell played inside centre.

There are also front-row concerns, with two thirds of Edinburgh’s World Cup front row sidelined, loosehead Al Dickinson with a calf injury and hooker Ross Ford with a rib cartilage problem picked up in the 1872 Cup against Glasgow.