John Cooney: MRI scan to reveal extent of scrum-half's hamstring injury

Cooney was forced off in the opening half of Ulster's 34-29 win over Glasgow

Ulster are awaiting the results of an MRI scan to determine the severity of a hamstring injury suffered by scrum-half John Cooney.

The Ireland international was forced off in the first half of the province's win against Glasgow in their opening United Rugby Championship game on Friday.

He will miss Saturday's trip to Zebre, as will wing Robert Baloucoune who picked up a groin strain and was replaced by Will Addison midway through the second half.

Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper said Cooney, whose replacement 19-year-old Nathan Doak scored 11 points as Ulster held off the Warriors 35-29, is "pretty positive" that the injury isn't serious.

"I'm going on John's medical expertise knowing his body," said Soper.

"He says he's pretty optimistic about it but we'll wait and see what the scan says today."

Doak and Dave Shanahan are Ulster's other scrum-half options.

Baloucoune felt groin 'tightness' - Soper

Soper added that wing Baloucoune, who earned his first Ireland cap in the summer Test win over the USA, will miss Saturday's trip to Italy to face Zebre after feeling "a bit of tightness in his groin".

"He'll probably have a week off this week just to get that right.

"He just felt like he couldn't completely open up. Nothing too major at all but we'll just get that right. Early season, we don't want to be pushing guys through things like that."

Cooney's injury meant an early introduction for Doak to Friday's contest and Soper said the Ireland Under-20 star and son of former Ulster head coach Neil Doak performed "exceptionally well".

"He's only a young kid and he's played very limited senior rugby since school - be it All-Ireland League or anything - because of the nature of the world we have been living in.

"But he is actually a very old head on young shoulders and has a real understanding of the game and a real calmness about him.

Nathan Doak scored 11 points after coming on to replace Cooney - including what proved to be Ulster's match-clinching fifth try

"Given the environment he grew up in at home with Neil, he's been in that rugby environment and has such a good understanding of the game.

"He has great potential. He's certainly by no means the first article. He knows that but he has a great attitude towards getting better."

With Glasgow causing Ulster's lineout particularly difficulties in Friday's opener, Soper admitted that the Irish province had to work hard for their opening win in front of some 15,000 spectators as the fans returned in meaningful numbers.

"We didn't have a huge amount of possession but what we did have we used pretty well and managed to get five tries and got the result.

"It got a wee bit tighter that we would have wanted in the second half when we had created a bit of a buffer.

"Glasgow made it really tough for us to get that platform at lineout. Our lineout is an excellent lineout and in the last few years, it's been one of the leading lineouts.

"It did it's job a lot of the time on Friday night but in fairness to Glasgow they put us under a lot of pressure and we had to go to some options that maybe didn't quite give us the launch that we wanted to have."