Ollie Griffiths: Wales flanker suffers Dragons injury blow

Ollie Griffiths has made 73 Dragons appearances since making his debut in 2014

Wales flanker Ollie Griffiths has been hit by another injury setback with a hamstring problem likely to rule him out until the 2020-21 season.

Dragons' Griffiths missed the 20-20 Ospreys draw and will be absent again when they host Scarlets next Saturday.

The 25-year-old is also set to miss the Challenge Cup semi-final against Bristol in mid-September.

"Ollie has some problems with a hamstring, so we are being careful," said director of rugby Dean Ryan.

Griffiths won his only cap against Tonga in 2017 and featured in Wayne Pivac's first Wales side, in the uncapped fixture against Barbarians in November 2019.

The new season starts in October with Dragons having an eye on that.

"He (Griffiths) has got some challenges in terms of the games that he has missed so we have got to be really careful. It's a long, long year," added Dragons boss Ryan.

"It might be a decision with the quality of our back row that we don't have to (rush him). We've got to be better at looking at longer blocks instead of next week, next week."

Dragons' draw with Ospreys meant the region will not finish the 2019-20 season as Wales' least successful professional side, a tag they have held consistently held since regional rugby's inception in 2003.

Director of rugby Dean Ryan is not bothered by the statistic.

"I am not interested," said Ryan. "I am just interested in us getting better. The Ospreys had some real challenges last year, so that doesn't mean anything.

"When I first came people said 'if you win four games…', but if five teams play really badly against us then what does that mean?

"It's about us getting better, it's about us being more competitive, it's about us looking at how far we can travel as a group.

"Referencing against other people just doesn't do anything for me."