Warren Gatland’s back row injury crisis has taken a turn for the worse with Dragons flanker Ollie Griffiths ruled out for up to six weeks with a broken jaw.
The 22-year-old Griffiths has become the fourth international flanker to be ruled out of Wales’ four autumn Tests after having his jaw smashed by a flying elbow in his side’s 28-21 European Challenge Cup win over Enisei-STM in Moscow.
Griffiths, who made his Wales debut this summer against Tonga, is set to undergo surgery on his return from Russia and now joins British & Irish Lions skipper Sam Warburton, Ross Moriarty and Ellis Jenkins on the sidelines, ahead of the games against Australia, Georgia, New Zealand and South Africa.
To make matters worse, the Scarlets’ openside James Davies is also on the injury list, while George North, Gethin Jenkins, Gareth Anscombe and Rob Evans are all either out or doubtful for next month.
“Ollie is due to have an operation tonight when we return. He is likely to be out for around six weeks,” said Dragons head coach Bernard Jackman.
“I’d have expected him to have been in the Wales squad for next month because he has been playing some good rugby. He caught an elbow in the face as he peeled off a line-out and the citing officer is taking a look at it.
“He lost his vision for a while and went off to hospital with a suspected broken jaw. That was the only negative for us on a day we finally won away from home.”
The Dragons’ bonus-point victory at the Slava Stadium was their first on the road since April, 2016 and ended a run of 23 consecutive away defeats.
“We hadn’t won away in a long time so it was just important to get that millstone off,” said Jackman.
“When we scored our third try, we lost concentration and allowed them back in but I don’t think we were ever in danger of not winning and their last try came quite late.
“We are very happy and with six points from two away games we are very much still alive but we know that we have a lot of progress to make.
“It was cold and really difficult to handle the ball, while the pitch was very narrow. We weren’t patient enough and could have scored a lot more tries, but there were lots of positives.
“It’s a horrible batch of away games with Cardiff Blues, Newcastle, this game and the Ospreys, Leinster and Munster to come but being together like this will be good for us come January and February.”