Skivington 'concerned' by Mercer and Thorley injuries

George Skivington was made director of rugby for Gloucester last year after three years as head coach

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington says he is "concerned" by the extent of injuries to number eight Zach Mercer and wing Ollie Thorley.

The England internationals both picked up knee problems during the 24-17 Premiership victory at Northampton on Saturday, with Thorley taken off after just 19 minutes.

"I'm concerned, I don't think they're going to be pretty ones to be honest, judging by how I've seen both the boys the last couple of days," Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I'm always conscious to be careful what I say or think because sometimes it's worse, sometimes it's not so bad, but I don't think those two are going to be particularly quick turnarounds by the looks of it so far."

The ex-Leicester lock said Mercer and Thorley would "probably" have scans on Wednesday.

Gloucester begin their European campaign this Friday in the Challenge Cup when they host Scottish side Edinburgh at Kingsholm.

The Cherry and Whites are in a very different position to last season, when they started the competition ninth in the Premiership table and made the Challenge Cup a top target, reaching the final before losing 36-22 to South African side Sharks.

Gloucester currently sit fifth in the league and Skivington admitted the club's attitude to Europe this season could be different given their improved domestic position.

"There's certainly a balancing act we've had to look at," he said. "We've mapped out these games how we thought they were going to go and we lost a few boys last week and now we've got to revisit it and that's the nature of the beast.

"But we had some great memories in Europe last year and there is a beauty in playing teams you don't know that well."