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It would be wrong to say that Wasps are suffering an injury crisis ahead of the new Premiership season, but it does appear that the prospective owners of the No.7 and 12 shirts spent some of their summer at a mirror smashing party.

After inside centres Andrea Masi and Alapati Leaiua managed three appearances between them last season , Kurtley Beale and Kyle Eastmond have joined the ridiculously unlucky Samoan powerhouse on the physio’s couch this term.

Meanwhile European rugby’s form openside flanker James Haskell, who is ruled out until December at the earliest after suffering a serious toe injury while starring for England last summer, will have Thomas Young for company in the Ricoh Arena stands when their club face Exeter on Sunday.

The Wales prospect, who displayed some outstanding form in the second half of last season, underwent shoulder surgery in May and according to his director of rugby and Dad Dai, he will be ruled out for another seven days.

“Thomas is in full training and ahead of schedule,” Wasps’ boss says, “but isn’t allowed to play until 12 weeks after his operation.

“He’s chomping at the bit, but no matter how good he looks, the surgeon’s advice is that he shouldn’t be playing until after the 12 weeks, so he’s available for selection against Leicester.”

This means that Guy Thompson is certain to start for Wasps against Exeter, presumably with Sam Jones and Nathan Hughes for back-row company. Former Rotherham and Leeds flanker Alex Rieder really impressed from the bench at Bristol last week, as did Ashley Johnson, who presumably will also provide cover for hooker Tommy Taylor.

Replacing the incomparable George Smith at No.7 was Young senior’s stated highest priority in May, but since then the sand has shifted very quickly under Wasps’ feet, as their director of rugby explains.

“At the end of last season, if we could have found a world-class replacement for George we would have gone for it,” he says.

“We scoured the rugby world for that type of player, and there weren’t many out there, and even fewer who were available. We went hard for Steffon Armitage, as has been well documented, but weren’t able to get the deal over the line.

“Hask then won a Grand Slam with England and went to Australia and won man-of-the-series with England. That left us with the man who was being widely tipped to be the Lions’ No.7 plus Thomas, which we felt gave us two quality players, so we were comfortable at that stage.

“Hask has always seen himself as a No.7 who can play at blindside rather than the other way round, and he’s really good in a lot of the key areas - he makes a lot of tackles, he’s good at the breakdown and is a strong carrier. I think he can play in either position, but he has always stressed to me that he wants to play openside in an ideal scenario, although he’s the kind of person who would play anywhere for the club.

(Image: Richard Lane Photography)

“The salary cap is there for a reason, and no-one re-signs or joins us for a pay cut, so because we had cover at No.7 we decided to look at the centres and signed Kurtley and Willie Le Roux.

“Kyle came on the market a bit later, so we then had to decide whether to keep a pot of money in case the No.7 no-one knows about miraculously becomes available, or to take a quality young English centre, and we decided to go down that path.

“ Hask then got injured , which put us under a bit of pressure, so we are now looking for an openside, but haven’t got the money to bring in a world-class player even if one was available.

“Equally, there’s no point bringing in someone who’s no better than what we’ve got, and Guy Thompson originally came to us as a No.7. So if we can find someone to supplement him and Thomas that’s what we’ll do. It could even be that should Guy and Thomas go especially well, we will bring in a No.6 or No.8 instead.”

Listen to this week's Coventry Telegraph rugby podcast featuring Wasps' Joe Simpson below