Wales head coach Warren Gatland is sweating over the fitness of two of his star players in Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb, who were both carried off on stretchers in the nation’s 23-19 warm-up win against Italy on Saturday.
Fears will undoubtedly be cast over the immediate welfare of the players, with full-back Halfpenny suffering a knee injury and scrum-half Webb sustaining suspected ankle ligament damage in the nation’s final warm-up game before the start of the Rugby World Cup.
Yet the extent of the injuries are yet to be confirmed with both players due to have scans, but Gatland is already preparing to call up replacements.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Gatland admitted it is not the best feeling in the world that some of his star players have suffered injuries: “You have got to feel for them if they are ruled out. It would be a massive blow for them and disappointing for us.
“But you’ve got to put that behind you and work with the players you’ve got and build them and have the confidence going into the next game.
“It’s one of those things. Players want to play, and unfortunately sometimes they pick up injuries.
“Potentially in the next 24-48 hours, when we get the (scan) results back, we may have to sit down and start thinking about replacements but there’s nothing concrete in our heads.
“We will see what the results are, and talk about that as coaches and sit down with the medics and talk about the whole squad and potentially what our options are.”
James Hook, Mike Phillips and Gareth Anscombe are three players who have been identified as possible replacements and will be hoping for the telephone call from Gatland, however the head coach will be waiting for the results from the scans before making a decision.
Halfpenny is seen as one of the side’s greatest assets and has proven in recent years that he is one of the best full-backs in the game whilst his kicking prowess was underlined after he passed the 500 points mark for his nation, while Webb has comfortably established himself for both club and nation in the last 12 months and has made the number nine jersey his own after taking over the mantle from Phillips.
Hook and Phillips were both in the preliminary Rugby World Cup squad but failed to make the cut despite both having over 170 international caps between them.
