The Cardiff Blues will name their team to face the Borders on Friday after suffering a number of injuries in their win over the Llanelli Scarlets on New Years Day.
Speaking ahead of the Borders match David Young said:
Tom Shanklin has run this morning and could be in contention for the weekend but we did pick up a number of injuries in our win over the Scarlets.
“James Goode fractured his ankle which will put him out for anything between five to eight weeks. John Yapp has ruptured his cruciate ligament in his knee which will rule him out for the rest of the season.
“Gethin Jenkins has a finger injury but hopefully should be ok and Mike Phillips also has a wrist injury.
The injury news did not get any better with Young adding Bradley Davies is also out for a month with an ankle injury. So were really stretched to the limits but it will give some of the youngsters an opportunity and thats something thats really pleased me this season.”
“The youngsters from the Academy have come in and weve blooded a lot of players so we are building a squad of quality and depth. James Down from our Academy, played for Wales Under 19s and is part of the Cardiff RFC team, will come in to the squad as will Adam Powell who also plays for Cardiff RFC at 6 and 8. We have belief in them that they will make it at the top level.”
“Taufaao Filise also needs a scan on his neck so we wont know until Friday if Gethin and Fao are ok, so Rhys Gill and Scott Roberts have also been training with the squad. Were down to our bare bones but well battle on and get on with it.
The team to face Borders will be posted on the Cardiff Blues website on Friday.