Zander Fagerson: Injured Scotland prop misses Six Nations matches

Zander Fagerson has 15 Scotland caps, starting 10 internationals

Glasgow prop Zander Fagerson is set to miss the opening rounds of Scotland's Six Nations Championship after being ruled out for around eight weeks.

The tight-head, 21, injured a foot in training with Warriors on Thursday.

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While hooker Fraser Brown will see a specialist after suffering a series of head injuries this season.

The 28-year-old is sidelined indefinitely, with Glasgow coach Dave Rennie pledging to "leave him out until we know a bit more".

News of Brown's time out follows the enforced retirement of former Warriors and Scotland full-back Peter Murchie, who announced on Friday he will cease playing on medical advice with immediate effect after a string of concussions.

The 31-year-old, capped three times for Scotland, ended his eight-year spell with Warriors last summer to join Stade Nicois as player-coach but will move back to Scotland to take up a new role with Scottish Rugby's development programme.

Meanwhile, Warriors will be without Callum Gibbins for up to 12 weeks, the flanker having undergone surgery on an Achilles injury.

Callum Gibbins sustained an Achilles injury during December

And lock Scott Cummings is out for around eight weeks having damaged a hand in training this week.

Fagerson, who has 15 caps, started each of Scotland's Six Nations fixtures in 2017 and featured in all three of the Scots' autumn internationals in November.

The former Strathallan pupil was in pole position to start this year's championship opener against Wales on 3 February, with rivals WP Nel and Simon Berghan, both of Edinburgh, injured and suspended respectively.

New Zealand-born Berghan's six-week ban ends a day after the Cardiff encounter, having been sent off in his side's win over Glasgow for a stamp to the head of Brown. He will not have played any rugby since that fixture on 23 December.

It is a further blow for national boss Gregor Townsend, who will now be without his two first-choice tight-heads and is likely to call upon Jon Welsh, of Newcastle Falcons.

"Zander could be out for eight-plus weeks," Rennie said. "A bench landed on his foot yesterday and, because he's got to push in scrums, the load that goes through that. Hopefully eight weeks.

"Six Nations is a pretty exciting time for young men, so Zander will certainly miss out on that."

Fraser Brown suffered a head injury in Scotland's win over Australia

Brown, meanwhile, has suffered several head injuries this season, including during Scotland's autumn hammering of Australia, and most recently in Glasgow's victory over Edinburgh on Saturday.

"Fraser is an odd one," Rennie added. "He gets a knock around the jaw [against Edinburgh], bounces back with no symptoms, so he'll test and he'll be able to get through all the [return-to-play] protocols and be available.

"He's done all that this week, but we're at the stage where we want to dig a little bit deeper.

"So he'll go down and see a specialist next week and we'll find out why this is happening.

"We'll basically leave him out of footy until we know a bit more."