Saints boss Dowson delivers latest injury update

The loosehead prop had surgery to rectify the problem during the summer.

Saints boss Phil Dowson said: "Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi had surgery in the summer so he's out of action.

"He had a bicep reattachment, which was a keyhole operation, and I've seen him out running around but he's not doing any contact at the moment so he'll probably be another couple of weeks at least.

"You saw Ethan Waller went off with a concussion last weekend, Alex Waller had concussion the week before against Irish and Manny Iyogun didn't train much last week because he's been recovering from an injury he picked up against Irish as well.

"We're very short on numbers at loosehead."

But Saints did this week bolster their squad with the arrival of loosehead prop Marty Mulhall on loan from Bristol Bears.

Mulhall will make his Saints debut from the start against London Irish in the Premiership Rugby Cup clash at the Gtech Community Stadium on Tuesday night.

"It's vital he's come in," Dowson said.

"He's been cracking in the environment, really good in terms of integrating very quickly so we've been excited to see how he goes and to run around in a Saints shirt and be part of the crew."

Ethan Waller and Courtney Lawes, both of whom came off against Leicester last weekend, are currently going through the concussion protocols.

"They both seem okay and they are going through the protocol of coming back to it so there's clearly no rush," Dowson said.

"They will go through the different steps but they were both okay post-game and absolutely fine.

"Hopefully they get through it quickly and we'll see how they go."

Back row forward Karl Wilkins was still on the 'not considered for selection' list ahead of the game against Leicester last weekend.

And at Monday's media session, Dowson said: "He's seeing a specialist tomorrow, looking after his knee, so the specialist will give us a bit more of an indication of when the brace can come off and he can join in.

"It's hard actually when players are injured because they spend a lot of time on their own. They spend a lot of time in the gym on their own, they spend a lot of time travelling down to London to see specialists so we've got to make sure we look after those lads because they're not part of training and they miss out on some of that atmosphere.

"It can be quite a tough place when you're injured so we'll try to look after Karl, Danny and the other boys who are carrying knocks."