Rugby World Cup: Stuart McInally replaces Dave Cherry in Scotland's squad

Stuart McInally, left, will replace Dave Cherry as Scotland prepare to face Tonga in their next Rugby World cup match

Dave Cherry is out of Scotland's World Cup squad with a concussion suffered after slipping on stairs.

Stuart McInally will replace hooker Cherry, 32, who sustained the head injury during "an accident in the team hotel" earlier this week.

Edinburgh team-mate McInally, 33, had been on standby after Ewan Ashman sustained a concussion of his own.

Ashman is, however, expected to be available for the Scots' second Pool B match against Tonga on 24 September.

Cherry played in his first World Cup match as a second-half replacement for George Turner in Sunday's 18-3 defeat by world champions South Africa in Marseille.

He now returns home, where his fiancée Olivia is due to give birth soon.

"It's very difficult for Dave, and it's sad," said head coach Gregor Townsend.

"At least he got to play in a game. His partner is just about to give birth so he's got something positive to go back to. He did well to get himself into the World Cup squad and he did well at the weekend. He would have had more involvement as we went through the pool."

By way of a statement, Cherry said he was "hugely disappointed", adding: "I've loved my time in camp over the summer and gaining my first World Cup cap."

Second call out for McInally

This will be a third World Cup for McInally, who captained the team at the tournament in 2019 but was one of the last names cut from the training squad last month.

"He's been called out twice now," said Townsend of the hooker, who plans to retire this year and become an airline pilot.

"On Monday I was chatting to him back at the hotel and I said 'you can stay until tomorrow or go back today, it looks like Ewan is on track to make a full recovery, so there's no reason to stay'.

"And then he came back out two days later and he's trained today. He's been topping up his fitness and he's always said he'd be ready for the opportunity. Maybe he would have been thinking that would have happened last week, but it's now happened for him.

"Stuart is a very experienced player for us. He's obviously been at World Cups before and had trained really well throughout the camp and had played well, so we're fortunate that we have someone with his experience and quality to step in."

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