Scotland's Sam Skinner has been ruled out of next month's Rugby World Cup after picking up a hamstring injury.
The Exeter lock suffered the issue in their 17-14 victory against France at Murrayfield last weekend.
“Skinner had the muscle scanned at Spire Murrayfield Hospital on the evening of the match, with the time taken to recover deemed insufficient to play a meaningful part in Scotland’s Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign," Scottish Rugby confirmed this afternoon.
Skinner has earned 38 caps for his country and was also offering cover for the back-row ahead of the tournament in Japan.
Glasgow's Tim Swinson has been called in as cover by coach Gregor Townsend's ahead of their final 31-man squad being confirmed next week.
Assistant coach Danny Wilson says they'll consider bringing Skinner to Japan after the start of the tournament, if he recovers ahead of schedule:
"Hopefully Sam will return as quickly as possible and in five or six weeks, depending on injuries to other players, we'll have a fit body to look at.
"But that's not for me to decide the time frame, that will come from the physios."
Scotland face Ireland in their opening pool game on the 22nd of September.
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