NEWPORT Gwent Dragons centre Jack Dixon faces three months on the sidelines because of a wrist injury.

The 19-year-old suffered the blow against the Ospreys a fortnight ago and, after he played on and finished the game, scans revealed he needed surgery.

Dixon sat out Saturday's 33-13 loss to Glasgow and is now expected to be out of action until Christmas.

The Dragons are also without centres Pat Leach (for another month, knee), Tyler Morgan (at least two weeks, knee) and Ross Wardle (until January, knee).

They are, however, hopeful of being bolstered by the returns of full-back Lee Byrne, centre Ashley Smith and fly-half Jason Tovey for Sunday's must-win Guinness Pro12 game with Treviso in Newport.

The region's average age behind the scrum was 23 and a half against the Warriors and director of rugby Lyn Jones is desperate to field some older heads.

"We need to get our experienced players on the field and it will give us confidence if we can do that," he said.

"There are a lot of good things out there but we are not backing it up; we've got holes in our defence and holes in our attack. In the long term it will do us good but just for now it's hurting us.

"We hope that a couple of fellas will be back and we need them back on the field.

"We have a lot of young players who have a huge future in the game but they need to have experience around them.

"Good players give you a good team, developing players give you a development team."

The Dragons have now taken two points from three games and have mustered just two wins in 14 Pro12 fixtures in 2014.

After a high turnover of players in the summer, Jones is hopeful of a reversal of fortunes once the new players settle.

He said: "Last year we started really well and finished off pretty poorly. This year will be different.

"We knew that September would be tough knitting a team together but we are looking forward to developing and growing."

- Bucharest Wolves will take an 18-13 lead to Calvisano on Saturday for the second leg of their European Rugby Challenge Cup qualifier.

The aggregate winners will join the Dragons, Newcastle and Stade Francais in Pool Three with the region facing them in the December double-header.