Michael Cheika may need to resort to Plan C for the Wallabies' season-opening Test against Fiji after midfield stars Kurtley Beale and Reece Hodge both suffered weekend setbacks.
Beale limped off with a hamstring injury in Wasps' thrilling 21-20 English Premiership semi-final win over Leicester before Hodge failed a head injury assessment after colliding with Wallabies teammate Israel Folau in the Melbourne Rebels' 50-23 Super Rugby loss to the NSW Waratahs.
Having already all but decided to rest Beale from the June 10 clash with the Pacific Islanders in Brisbane, Cheika was likely to retain Hodge at inside centre after the 22-year-old nailed down the position with nine Test appearances in 2016.
Now the Wallabies coach will certainly be sweating on an update on Hodge on Monday after the goalkicking backline utility collided heavily with Folau's elbow at Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
Laying prone, Hodge was treated for several minutes before being taken from the field on a medicab.
He allayed fears of any serious injury by giving fans the thumbs up as he was carted up the tunnel to the Rebels dressing room.
"I don't have a full update but I spoke to him at halftime and he seemed well aware of where he was and what he was doing," said Rebels coach Tony McGahan.
"It's not a great knock to take early on, but he seemed in good spirits and we'll see where that goes."
While Hodge has 19 days to be ready to tackle Fiji, if selected, he's unlikely to have sufficiently recovered for the Rebels' hosting of unbeaten table-toppers the Crusaders on Saturday night.
With young gun Jack Maddocks also suffering an arm injury, McGahan had to call on his 38th different player of an injury-ravaged season.
Maddocks will have scans to determine if he can fly, as planned, to Georgia for the under-20s Rugby World Cup on Monday.
"Maddocks has got a bad bump on his forearm, so he's just gone to get X-rays now so we'll know more soon," McGahan said before offering a rare cross-code comparison of the endangered and cellar-dwelling Rebels' woes to that of the NRL's Wests Tigers.
McGahan believes the Tigers - who have lost three of their so-called Big Four in contract sagas and are looking more like wooden spoon contenders than finals aspirants - have little to complain about.
"I saw (Tigers coach) Ivan Cleary come out on Friday night post the Tigers and Brisbane game," McGahan said.
"Obviously they have three or four players (with contracting issues) and one player leaving mid-week to go to Parramatta.
"So if three or four players is having a toll on their team, and he (Cleary) said it is starting to show in their performance ... magnify that to 45 plus 20 staff. That's probably a reflection of where we're at.
"We are certainly not blaming it for dropped ball or those sort of things. They're skill errors.
"(But) any time when you have stress away from work, the times when you are by yourself or with loved ones, eats up the preparation time.
"It's (impacting) the time you spend away from the training facility.
"Come game day, you're maybe not at your best every week."
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