THE Dragons will be without Argentina scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou until February after he suffered a knee injury on his return from World Cup duty.
The Pumas international suffered a blow in the last-gasp Challenge Cup win at Pau and will miss the rest of the pre-Six Nations block.
Bertranou will sit out the festive derbies against Cardiff and the Scarlets in the United Rugby Championship and then the end of the Challenge Cup group stages against Zebre Parma and the Sharks.
The 29-year-old was in his first club appearance of the season after helping Argentina to the semi-finals of the World Cup but will now target the Glasgow and Ulster games during the Six Nations
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The Dragons are blessed with strength at scrum-half with Rhodri Williams and Dane Blacker backed up by Lewis Jones and the young pair of Morgan Lloyd and Che Hope.
The Dragons are blessed with strength at scrum-half with Rhodri Williams and Dane Blacker backed up by Lewis Jones and the young pair of Morgan Lloyd and Che Hope.
However, it is a blow to lose a player of Bertranou’s quality for the bid to climb off the bottom of the URC and qualify for the last 16 of Europe.
“It is a significant injury and that’s a shame after he had some time off after the World Cup then had a niggle that meant he missed the tour to South Africa,” said head coach Dai Flanagan.
“He was superb at Pau, him and Cai Evans really controlled the game as half-backs.
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