Wilson injury adds to Ulster’s back-row woe

Ulster have been hit with another blow in their back-row after number eight Roger Wilson picked up a hamstring injury in the win over Castres.

Wilson had a scan yesterday on the same hamstring that sidelined him for nearly six months and the news comes as a particularly big blow as the 31-year-old had been running into a rich vein of form lately.

Recently, he stepped seamlessly into the gap left by Nick Williams who had knee surgery last week.

Elsewhere, Stephen Ferris is recuperating well from his ankle surgery and coach Mark Anscombe is hopeful he might feature sooner rather than later, while skipper Johann Muller looks a certain starter against off-colour Swansea outfit Ospreys on Feb 8.

“Stephen is getting very close to his comeback, but maybe the Ospreys game is a bit early. However, he is only a matter of weeks away,” said Anscombe.

“Johann will be back for that Ospreys’ game, and hopefully Dan Tuohy [calf] and maybe Luke Marshall [hand] as well. The next week or two will tell,” said Anscombe who was a bit surprised Robbie Diack didn’t get a call-up to the Ireland training panel.

“I was disappointed for Robbie and indeed for Roger [Wilson]. Surprised that at least one of them didn’t make it, why? I don’t know. Robbie is the best lineout number six in the country, there is no doubt about that. His work in that set-piece is outstanding.”

Ulster will not know when and where they will face Saracens in the Heineken Cup quarter-final on the weekend of April 5-7 until February 6. Saracens’ new home at Allianz Park just off the A1 near Hendon is a compact 10,000-seater stadium but Heineken Cup quarter-finals require a capacity of 15,000 or more.

Saracens chief executive Ed Griffiths confirmed he is in negotiations with Barnet Council to allow the stadium to host the quarter-final by installing temporary seating to bring the capacity up to ERC’s minimum standard.

For Anscombe though the bigger issue is making sure his players are fresh and healthy.

“The effect is we have about 14 games to go, so it’s nearly another season in itself,” said Anscombe.

“You hope to have a full contingent to select from and we know that when we do have everybody on board we have a good team. But on saying that there are still a lot of areas where we have to do better. ”