London (AFP) – Scotland fly-half Finn Russell remains in contention to play in Saturday’s match away to France despite suffering a head injury but full-back Stuart Hogg has been ruled out of the Six Nations fixture.
Influential playmaker Russell, now with Paris-based Racing 92, was substituted before half-time in Sunday’s loss to Toulouse in the French Top 14 and failed the initial head injury assessment.
But the outside-half, 26, joined up with the Scotland squad on Monday and will now undergo further tests to see if he can play against France following the minimum six-day recovery period.
“He’s with us in the training group today. Obviously it was seen that he didn’t meet the criteria to return to the field of play,” Scotland forwards coach Danny Wilson said.
“From now on it’s an assessment process. Six days from the game is Saturday and there’s a process all players go through in that period of time. We have just got to go with our experienced and outstanding medical staff.”
Hogg, however, will miss the fixture in the French capital after suffering a shoulder injury in Scotland’s defeat by Ireland last time out, but team management will hope to have him available for their final two matches of this season’s Six Nations, against Wales and England.
Scotland coach Gregor Townsend has added six players to his squad ahead of the fixture in Paris, including Worcester stand-off Duncan Weir.
Edinburgh back-row Magnus Bradbury and Glasgow front-row forwards Zander Fagerson and George Turner have been selected after returning from injury over the weekend, with backs Dougie Fife and James Johnstone also coming in.
Scottish players based at clubs abroad — like Russell — can still feature for the national team unlike the situation in England.
Had Russell been at Glasgow or Edinburgh, however, it was likely he would have been rested for last weekend’s round of Pro14 matches as was the case with other leading Scotland players.
His injury highlights the problems countries such as Scotland face when leading players opt for more lucrative club deals overseas.
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