The Ospreys will check further on the fitness of young centre Owen Watkin on Monday following his neck injury suffered in their 29-28 weekend victory over the Cardiff Blues.
The Wales international was hurt during the late stages of the Guinness Pro14 derby at the Liberty Stadium and taken to hospital for medical checks.
Watkin was released home on Saturday night but the 21-year-old is due to undergo more tests at the Ospreys’ training base before it will be known whether the injury will rule him out of European Champions Cup and Six Nations contention over the next few weeks.
The Ospreys issued a statement, which read: “Chris Towers, Ospreys’ medical performance manager, has confirmed that Owen Watkin was released from hospital on Saturday evening with ‘no structural damage’.
“The young centre suffered an impact to the neck late on during Saturday’s bonus-point win over Cardiff Blues at the Liberty Stadium and was removed from the field and taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.
“Towers confirmed today that having been thoroughly checked out, Watkin went home late on Saturday evening and will report to Llandarcy Academy of Sport on Monday to be further assessed by the medical team before any necessary treatment plan can be put in place ahead of his return to play.”
Watkin has been one of the most promising players in Wales in recent months and made his Wales debut during the November internationals.
His absence would be a blow to his region who are already without injured backs Ben John, Hanno Dirksen, Kieran Williams, Tom Williams and Keelan Giles.
The Ospreys’ victory was their fourth in their last five matches and continues both their recent recovery and their long-standing dominance over the Blues in Swansea.
Dan Biggar was their inspiration with his astute kicking game creating three of his side’s four tries and coach Steve Tandy said: “I thought Dan Biggar’s attack kicking was excellent.
“We knew we’d worked hard on some of the cross-field kicks and the dinks, but Biggs does it better than anyone and fair play, he delivered in abundance.
“There were a couple of really good tries out there. We’d have liked a few more.”
For the Blues, the result was a second defeat in three derby games and coach Danny Wilson admitted his frustration.
Wilson said: “Credit to the boys to get back into the game and on another day perhaps we could have nicked it. It’s one we will definitely look back at and say it’s a missed opportunity.
“We’re frustrated, we had a decent win against the Dragons, we should have beaten the Scarlets and it’s come down to a one-point game against the Ospreys.
“Ultimately it’s two losses, we were targeting two wins out of this period and unfortunately we’ve only got one win.”
