Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill has confirmed that centre Mark Bennett is set to miss part of the season after picking up a hamstring injury in last weekend’s PRO14 match against Ulster.
The 22-times capped Scotland international was stretchered off in the 19th minute of the 30-29 defeat to the Irish province at the Kingspan Stadium.
“He’ll have a scan today, so we’ll know in the next 24 hours, but clearly it’s something quite significant,” Cockerill explained at Monday’s media conference. “The extent of that we don’t know yet.
“He’s on crutches. At the moment we think – it’s yet to be confirmed – that he has ruptured his hamstring at the very top. Similar to the one Tom Brown had last year. If it is completely ruptured it is a serious injury. If it is what we think it is, it will be months.
“I feel very sorry for Mark, because he missed half of last season and now he’s probably going to miss a big chunk of this year. Thankfully it’s nothing to do with his knees.
“People recover from hamstring issues and, as severe as this one is, he will hopefully be fit for the New Year, give or take – we’ll see.
“Mark is over the ball, one guys tries to clean him and does not quite get him and then he gets cleaned again and gets caught with his leg straight and got bent into a position where he got past his flexibility. Something had to give and it was his hamstring. Nothing wrong with the clean-out – it was unfortunate, purely bad luck.”
Cockerill also confirmed that Fijian international Bill Mata picked up a shoulder injury in the defeat to Ulster and is questionable for this weekend’s encounter with Connacht at BT Murrayfield.
However, scrum-half, Henry Pyrgos – who was substituted with a leg injury in Friday’s match – has recovered and is in contention for selection.