George Turner: Scotland deliver upbeat medical bulletin on injured hooker
Scotland have delivered an upbeat medical bulletin on George Turner ahead of this Saturday’s match against South Africa at BT Murrayfield.
The hooker lasted only 11 minutes of the win over Australia on Sunday after sustaining a rib injury.
The initial prognosis was that he was unlikely to recover in time to face the Springboks.
However, the Scotland camp were more optimistic on Monday about the Glasgow Warriors forward’s progress.
“George came off having felt a rib in a scrum, which can be uncomfortable, a pretty sharp pain,” explained John Dalziel, the forwards coach.
“But there’s been a huge turnaround with him this morning [Monday] and he’s bouncing about as normal.
“George is a resilient character and it’s good news. We’re pretty sure he’s going to turn it around quicker than we thought.”
With Stuart McInally missing the Australia match because of illness and Fraser Brown ruled out of the Autumn Nations Series with a knee injury, Scotland had already lost two hookers.
However, Ewan Ashman came off the bench for Turner and delivered a fine performance on his international debut, culminating in a superb second-half try.
Dalziel believes Ashman and fellow debutant Josh Bayliss are ready to start a Test match.
“One hundred per cent,” he said. “We know they have the ability to play Test rugby. And they proved to everybody on Sunday just what they have in the locker.
“We’ll see a lot more of these guys going forward. It’s great to be able to add these guys to our squad.
“They’re going to be big players for us going forward.”