Lions waiting for medical report on Stuart Hogg following head injury

The British & Irish Lions were on Monday waiting for a medical report on the condition of full-back Stuart Hogg following his head injury during Saturday's win over the Crusaders, writes Simon Lewis, Dunedin

Hogg ran into team-mate Conor Murray's elbow as he chased his own kick through traffic in the first half of the 12-3 win in Christchurch. He suffered a cut under an ear and bruising under his eye as well as failing a Head Injury Assessment and the Lions medical staff sent the Scotland star to a specialist to assess the extent of the injury.

“We're still waiting on a report back on Stuart Hogg, so we'll get that later this afternoon,” Lions defence coach Andy Farrell said overnight Irish time.

Asked about the area of concern, the cut or the bruised area, Farrell added: “The bang in general, just to see if there's anything else that's going on there. We'll find out later on today.”

Farrell suggested it was unlikely the Lions head coach Warren Gatland would call up a replacement if Hogg were to be ruled out of the New Zealand tour.

“Gats will give him all the time he needs to make sure he's all right. We'll wait for the outcome but I would think at this moment in time, we've got a pretty big squad and we've got a lot of people in place to cover different positions.”

Aside from Hogg, there were positive reports on the fitness of Welsh backs Jonathan Davies, who failed an HIA minutes after the Scottish full-back, and Dan Biggar, named to start at fly-half against the Highlanders on Tuesday having suffered a concussion against the Blues last Wednesday.

“Jonathan Davies, protocol-wise, is on track with no symptoms. Dan Biggar has been smashing me all morning, so he's fine and ready to go tomorrow.”