One ruled out of URC start, one a concern, one declared fit: Glasgow's wounded Lions

Scotland prop Zander Fagerson has suffered a fresh injury setback which will see him miss the start of the new season with Glasgow while Lions Test centre Huw Jones will seek further specialist advice over a persistent issue on his return to the club.

Key tighthead Fagerson has not played since early April after picking up a calf injury but was on the comeback trail and named in the initial British & Irish Lions squad before the problem resurfaced and he was forced to withdraw before the party headed to Australia.

There were hopes the 29-year-old might have been fit to join the latter stages of the tour if further replacements were needed, while Scotland also considered taking him on their summer trip to New Zealand and Fiji to complete his rehabilitation before ultimately deciding he was better off recovering at home.

But three weeks out from Glasgow’s opening URC game against the Sharks, head coach Franco Smith revealed Fagerson was due to see a specialist on Friday as he battles to return to fitness in time to be available for Scotland’s autumn Tests in November.

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“Zander has had a bit of a setback in the gym regarding a knee injury,” Smith explained. “He’s also seeing a specialist to make sure that we follow a good rehabilitation programme from that perspective. It’s a different injury than he struggled with. It’s not his calf, it’s a knee injury. We will hopefully get him back in time.”

Fagerson is not the only injury concern for Smith with Jones also due to seek specialist advice when he returns to the club on Monday.

The 31-year-old spent two months on the sidelines after the Six Nations earlier this year with an Achilles injury before returning for the last two games of the URC regular season.

He was pencilled in to start Glasgow’s quarter-final against the Stormers before his tendonitis issue flared up again, forcing him to miss that game and a semi-final against Leinster. At the time Smith said it was an issue Jones would need to manage “for the rest of his career”.

Jones recovered in time for the Lions tour and came on as a replacement in their first game in Australia against Western Force, starting six more matches including all three Tests against the Wallabies. He was initially dropped for the second Test only to be reinstated when Garry Ringrose withdrew with a recurrence of concussion symptoms, and scored a vital try in the Lions’ memorable comeback win to clinch the series.

“Huw is going to come back in with an injury that needs to be resolved and managed,” Smith said on Friday. “We will have more clarity regarding that early next week. He has already seen a specialist around that, so we will see what the outcome of that is.”

On a more positive note, Jones’ regular centre partner for club and country, Sione Tuipulotu, is expected to have recovered from the hamstring injury which affected his participation in the latter stages of the Lions tour.

Tuipulotu was sidelined with a pec injury for four months from mid-January to mid-May, missing the whole Six Nations, before returning for Glasgow’s final regular-season game at Leinster and their two URC knockout games before joining up with the Lions.

The centre subsequently started five games for the tourists, including the first Test victory in Brisbane in which he scored an early try, before injury effectively ruled him out of the remainder of the series.

“Sione has declared himself fit,” Smith said with a smile. “He’s only back from Australia today, I think. It’ll be good to have him back and he’ll be freshened up. We will obviously then follow due process to make sure that his return to performance is done properly. His integration into the group in the next three weeks is going to be important.”

Smith also reported that the other member of Glasgow’s Lions contingent, lock Scott Cummings, will return to the club “healthy” on Monday, with all three having been given a five-week break following their Lions exertions.

Historically players have struggled with fitness and form in the season following a Lions tour, but Smith said he was not unduly concerned about the workload on Jones, Tuipulotu and Cummings – who also missed three months of last season after suffering a broken forearm in January.

“The difference with our Lions that were out there is that they didn’t play much for us leading up to the Lions tour,” he noted. “Since the Six Nations or, in the case of Sione, even before that, they weren’t much available to play rugby.

“There was a lot of rehabilitation and a lot of training to get them better. They’ve had some good breaks, but their number of minutes on the pitch was actually quite reduced in comparison to even the other internationals that we have in our group. So they were the only group that’s had five consecutive weeks of rest now, which is ideal.

“We’re going to try and manage them in such a way that they go into the Scotland environment in November with three clear objectives. One, to be physically at top level. Two, to have enough rugby minutes under their belt to make a difference for Scotland in the internationals. And three, to contribute to Glasgow Warriors and to progress our aspirations.

“Our ingredients are enthusiasm, creativity and energy. So to fill those stores takes a bit of planning and skill. And we’re going to hopefully allow them to have those ingredients and to achieve those three objectives.

“We would like to have all of those boys not just fit – fit is one thing, it’s to be performing – by the time they reach the Autumn Nation Series.”