Dowson delivers Saints injury latest ahead of clash with Scarlets

The England fly-half was ruled out of last Sunday's game at Union Bordeaux Bègles due to a calf strain.

And at Wednesday's media session, Saints boss Phil Dowson delivered the latest update on Smith.

"Fin Smith's dealing with a calf strain and we're still waiting to see how long that is from a scan point of view," Dowson said.

"It's probably minimum two (weeks), but with a muscle injury it's hard to give a timeline beyond that really.

"It's not months and months and it's not going to be this weekend. Somewhere in between that."

Anthony Belleau stepped in for Smith against Bordeaux, coming through the 80 minutes despite battling a facial injury sustained against Harlequins.

Saints were without James Ramm, who Dowson confirmed had to withdraw due to a hamstring issue that flared up last week.

George Furbank was also unavailable for the game in Bordeaux.

"George Furbank has had some issues with his calves so we're waiting to see how he is," Dowson said.

"He's just felt some tightness in his calves. I don't think it's major but with the history he's had, we're going to play it very conservatively and we're going to be pragmatic about what it looks like for him.

"He cuts a frustrated figure but he also buys into the fact he doesn't want to be in and out. Once he's back, we want to get a run of games into him and look after him.

"It's based just on his injury record from last year and the different things that waylaid him so we want to make sure we're not going through that same cycle this year."

One injury boost comes in the form of Fraser Dingwall, who is on his way back after suffering concussion against Harlequins earlier this month.

"He's good," Dowson said.

"He's gone through the HIA protocol, he's spoken to a specialist, we've gone through all that, we've made sure he's okay, he's trained today and he's in good form."

When asked whether Dingwall could be available this weekend, Dowson said: "Yes."

Manny Iyogun put in a big shift from the bench last weekend but he eventually had to come off against Bordeaux.

"He had a bit of a bump on his shoulder joint but hopefully with a bit of rest, he'll be okay," Dowson said. "We're monitoring him.

"I thought his impact was excellent and literally from the first scrum, he locked it down."

Josh Kemeny may be able to return from concussion this week, while Tom Lockett has been edging ever closer to a comeback from a leg injury.

Centre Tom Litchfield (hamstring) and loosehead prop Tom West (knee) remained on Saints' unavailable list last weekend, with Dowson expecting Litchfield back 'some time in the PRC block' and West having started to join in with some training last week.

Curtis Langdon continues to progress in his recovery from the shoulder surgery he had last summer.