Scotland hooker Lana Skeldon has been ruled out of Sunday’s Women’s Six Nations round five match away to Ireland due to a neck injury.
The 32-year-old Bristol Bear played the first three games in the tournament and captained the side away in Italy, but since then has been dealing with an issue and will not be available to play at the Aviva Stadium after also missing the round four game against France.
Skeldon’s 87 cap experience will be missed on the road as the injury-ravaged fifth placed Scots look to get the better of Ireland – who are sitting third – to finish a tough campaign on a high note.
Meanwhile, Skeldon’s fellow Hawick native Lisa Thomson – the 28-year-old centre with 75 caps – has not recovered sufficiently yet from her long-term achilles issue and won’t be involved in the game either.
It means that the Trailfinders Women’s back – brought back into the wider training group pre-France – will have missed the whole tournament.
There is some good news though with confirmation that Alex Stewart, the 21-year-old, 20-cap back-row, is available for selection again having missed the France game due to a head injury.
“Lana unfortunately won’t be available for this week,” senior assistant coach Ioan Cunningham confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.
“She’s had some issues with just her neck so we’re monitoring that and it’s important that she gets that right before she takes the field again.
“To be honest, we’re not 100 percent sure [if it is going to be a long-term issue] She’s still being monitored at the moment, it’s mostly based off her symptoms at this stage, so we’ll know a bit more post-Six Nations campaign probably.
“Lisa probably wasn’t far off, but she hasn’t quite made it, she’s run out of time a little bit.
“She’s a huge part of our group, but unfortunately, she won’t be with us this week.
“And Alex is still going through the concussion protocols and we have to take that daily really, but she’s back in full training which is a good thing and she’s available.”
The Scotland matchday 23 to take on Ireland is due to be named on Friday lunchtime.
Lana Skeldon is pictured – thanks to Scottish Rugby
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