MORAY Low has lost his fitness battle and will miss the Scotland tour to Argentina next month.
But while the door closes for the moment on the 23-year-old uncapped Glasgow prop, it opens for his club-mate Max Evans, who will now join his younger brother, Thom, on the trip to South America.
Low broke down with an ankle injury in the first ha
lf of Glasgow's Magners League victory over Munster in Cork on Saturday. Scotland team doctor James Robson said: "Moray will be subject to further assessment but on reviewing the X-ray he will be in a compression boot for two weeks then undergo a period of rehabilitation of between four to six weeks, which will rule him out of the tour."
Low's place on the plane to Buenos Aires will be taken by the veteran Edinburgh prop forward Craig Smith.
The former Melrose player was named last week in the Scotland A squad for the Barclay's Churchill Cup in North America next month and replacements for both him and Max Evans in the shadow pool will be announced later in the week.
Meanwhile, two of Scotland's injured backs, Nikki Walker and Rory Lamont, have not recovered in time from leg and knee injuries respectively and will be unable to fill any of the vacancies in the tour party to Argentina.
Scotland head coach Frank Hadden said: "We have decided to promote Max Evans from the Scotland A squad.
"Max has played well in the Magners League for Glasgow and is another to have benefited from involvement with both Scotland A and Scotland 7s.
"We are still waiting to see if Simon Webster will recover from his hamstring injury to make the tour.
"He'll be subject to further monitoring and we'd hope to make a decision on Simon next week," Hadden added.
Max Evans marked his A international debut by scoring two tries as a replacement wing in Scotland's 67-7 win against Ireland at McDiarmid Park earlier in the year.
He joined the Glasgow pro team from Glasgow Hawks a year earlier after following his brother, Thom, north to play rugby.
The utility back, whose preferred position is at outside centre, had previously played with London Scottish and was a member of Harlequins' academy set-up.
Smith, a native of Berwick, has 25 caps, the last of which came as a replacement during Scotland's 15-9 win over England in the 2008 Calcutta Cup.
Like Smith, a decision on who replaces Max Evans in the Scotland A squad will be made later this week.
The full article contains 437 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
