Dowson delivers injury update on wing trio ahead of Saints' game at Gloucester

And Ollie Sleightholme could also miss Saturday's trip to Gloucester after he became the third wing to have to leave the field in the Investec Champions Cup clash.

Saints are really stretched in the wing positions, with James Ramm having already suffered a long-term knee injury.

And when asked for an update on Hendy and Seabrook, who both had to be helped from the field against Toulon, the news Dowson was able to give wasn't too positive.

"Tom Seabrook has rolled his ankle quite badly, George Hendy has got a bad knee," the Saints boss said. "Both are going to get more specialist opinion on it so there's no timeline for those guys, but it's not going to be short term."

On Sleightholme, Dowson said: "Ollie Sleightholme has a hip pointer, which is effectively a dead hip, but it's particularly painful. You see the way he was trying to run, it wasn't great, so we're trying to turn him around but we might run out of time - we're not sure yet."

George Furbank was another player who seemed to be battling an injury last Friday, though he did manage to complete the game, scoring two tries in the 22-19 success.

"He seems okay," Dowson said. "He's trained.

"We're trying to look after him.

"We're getting into a series of games - it's 20 games on the bounce or whatever - so we're trying to look after him, manage him and make sure we get what we need out of training."

So how confident is Dowson that Saints can cope with so many players out in the same position?

"It's always the way," he said. "Murphy's law suggests you're always going to get injuries in the same spots.

"We've got guys coming back, slowly but surely, and it gives opportunity to the rest of the squad for guys who have been waiting for an opportunity to put their hand up."