Highland Rugby Club waiting on injury assessments ahead of home match against Stirling in Inverness
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Dave Carson is waiting to see how many of his Highland Rugby Club absentees are in line to make a return this week.
Seumas Ross and Gordon Gregor each failed fitness tests last Thursday ahead of the trip – an ultimately unsuccessful one – to Gala.
Alex Macdonald, Sean Blair and Stephen Murray were all then forced off during the game, putting question marks over their status for this weekend's home match against Stirling.
"We thought we were looking quite strong, then we lost the two on Thursday night and three more during the game," Carson explained.
"I had to think quickly on my feet about how I was going to re-shuffle things.
"Some of them got assessed on Sunday, but we have to watch the video for Alex so we can see how the head knock was.
"We'll just see who comes back. Grant Jamieson will come back in after being unavailable due to work commitments, so he will take one of the injured boys' places.
"Seamus wasn't far away on Thursday, and he trained twice last week, so we'll see how he's doing.
"It would be great if we got him back in, but I'm not sure about the other forwards, so we're going to be quite thin.
"The second team is going to Shetland, so that's a big trip to organise with flights and boats – it will be a busy week selection and organisation-wise."
Missing so many players by the end of the defeat to Gala meant that some young players wound up getting more minutes than anticipated.
Svend Pederson in particular would play 77 minutes, rather than the short cameo he was expecting towards the end of the match.
Carson has been integrating more young talent this season in an effort to future-proof the squad, but he has tried to remain cautious about where and when to give players experience – and that will be no different going forward even with a number of injury doubts.
"We don't have a massive squad, but the guys who have come in have done a job," he added.
"We have always used our students who are dual-registered if we have to, and these guys step up for the club which is absolutely fantastic and shows where their heart is.
"We have always loved introducing young boys, but you don't want to put too many on at the same time.
"You want them to learn off the experienced guys really, and it wouldn't be fair on them to have too many in together for a National One game.
"Everything is a lot faster and they're not used to that, so you need guys around them to help out – you don't want to hang them out to dry.
"I always like to put them on in a controlled manner when you know some big, experienced guys are going to look after them.
"It will be an interesting week, and we'll have to see what magic our physios can work with the boys."
