Edinburgh injuries mount as update given on quartet - with Robin Hislop's knee the most serious

Prop set to be out for the long-term after incident in match against Gloucester

Edinburgh prop Robin Hislop faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines as a result of the knee injury he sustained in Saturday night’s Challenge Cup defeat by Gloucester. Wes Goosen and Mark Bennett, who injured a quad and a knee respectively in the 21-20 loss, have also been ruled out of Friday night’s pool decider at Scarlets, but head coach Sean Everitt is more hopeful about their chances of a reasonably quick return.

“Robin Hislop’s knee injury definitely looks like a long-term one, but we haven’t had the results back from his MRI yet,” he said on Mondau. “Wes and Mark had their MRIs this morning: they won’t be available [on Friday], but we still don’t know the extent of their injuries.”

Darcy Graham is a doubt with a minor problem, but his fellow-winger Duhan van der Merwe will be back after being allowed to miss out last week in order to attend his twin sister’s wedding in South Africa. “Darcy got a quad niggle early in the game - I saw him go down,” Everitt added. “He struggled a bit through the 80 minutes, and he’s also a guy that’s under examination at the moment. We’ll have a clear outcome of that tonight. It’s just short-term. Harry Paterson will be involved on Friday. Whether he starts or is on the bench depends on the outcome with Darcy.”

Edinburgh prop Robin Hislop receives treatment after his injury against Gloucester.

Paterson was a replacement on Saturday and was pressed into action after only five minutes because of the injury to Goosen. He can play at full-back or on the wing, but is likely to play in the latter position, with Emiliano Boffelli again taking the No 15 jersey. The bonus point for a narrow defeat by Gloucester means that Edinburgh will be guaranteed a top-four finish in Pool 3 – and therefore a place in the last 16 of the competition – if they record a bonus-point win at Scarlets, who are bottom of the pool and out of the running.

“This team needs to win on Friday,” Everitt added. “We know that we’re good enough, and it’s about us concentrating on our performance and not worrying about the outcome.”