James Hook and Dan Lydiate could miss the remainder of Wales’ World Cup Pool D fixtures after sustaining injuries in their 17-10 defeat of Samoa on Sunday.
Hook, who has started his last two matches at full-back, faces two to three weeks out with a shoulder injury while flanker Lydiate is due to undergo a scan today on an ankle injury.
That could rule them out of the Namibia game in New Plymouth next Monday and their potentially decisive clash with Fiji on October 2.
Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards said: “I think it’s a grade one or two injury that James has. That usually means two or three weeks.
“We’re still in the dark about Dan, we’ll know more after his scan on Monday whereas James is a little easier detect to what it is. He has done his AC joint.
“Dan’s still in a moon boot, but they put moon boots on everything these days.”
Hook was replaced at half time by winger Leigh Halfpenny, who impressed Edwards with his impact out of position.
And Edwards – who is responsible for the Wales defence – was also delighted with their second-half performance as they shut out Samoa after the break.
Edwards added: “Leigh made a huge difference yesterday. For a guy who’s played only two games at full-back, he was excellent.
“I gave the boys a target of 12 points (conceded) and Samoa got 10.
“The boys showed massive character. This time last year we would have lost that game, but our conditioning came into it.
“I was concerned at half-time, I think everybody was but I couldn’t portray that to the players. I had to give them instructions, specifics that we needed to do.
“We just basically said ‘Lads, this is the time in this game when you are going to have to dig to the bottom of your boots,’ and it came to the fore in the last 10 minutes.”
