WALES hopeful Ashton Hewitt faces more injury anguish after twisting awkwardly while scoring in the Dragons’ European Challenge Cup defeat to Northampton.
The winger, who last week signed a fresh two-year contract, got his left leg caught when finishing strongly past two Saints defenders at Rodney Parade.
The 26-year-old from Newport was helped from the field and left the ground in a knee brace.
A full assessment will reveal the extent of the damage in the coming days but the Dragons are fearing bad news.
“He has got a problem with his knee but we won’t know more until during the week,” said director of rugby Dean Ryan.
Hewitt had been in fantastic form to put himself back on the Wales radar and led the PRO14 for defenders beaten, was second for clean breaks and on the leaderboard for offloads.
The speedster had also been named as league ‘Ironman’ for playing more minutes than any other player, but now he has suffered another cruel blow.
He would have been targeting an elusive Wales cap this summer after previously being denied by injury misfortune.
Wayne Pivac is blessed with options out wide but Hewitt has developed his all-round game to go along with his impressive finishing.
He was called up for the 2017 Six Nations only to withdraw after a concussion and then suffered a dislocated right shoulder in a training collision with Dragons teammate Elliot Dee just days before the tour to face South Africa and Argentina in 2018, when Warren Gatland had guaranteed all squad members action.
Thanks to everybody that has sent messages about my knee. We should know more soon.
— Ashton Hewitt (@ashton_hewitt) April 4, 2021
Also gutted about the loss, but a load of positives to take away from our efforts. We’re building nicely 💪🏾🐉 @dragonsrugby
He was a reserve for the uncapped fixture against the Barbarians in 2019 and trained with Wales during the 2020 Six Nations.
Hewitt’s blow is likely to lead to Rio Dyer getting more game time during the Rainbow Cup, which starts on the weekend of April 23 against the Scarlets at Rodney Parade.
The Dragons then head to Cardiff and entertain the Ospreys in the first batch of the new tournament that includes four South African sides.
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