DIRECTOR of rugby Gary Gold admits he will be working hard to bring in reinforcements after suffering a double injury blow in Worcester Warriors’ 24-10 defeat to Wasps.

Tighthead prop Nick Schonert was stretchered off inside the opening minute after picking up what Gold fears could be a broken ankle.

And Warriors were forced into another change at the start of the second half when fly-half Tom Heathcote sustained a bang to the head.

Gold confirmed the 25-year-old, who missed a large chunk of last season with concussion after two blows to the head, had failed his head injury assessment.

“Nick will obviously have to go for an X-ray but it does look like he may have broken his ankle so it will be long term,” Gold said.

“It’s another bang on the head (for Tom) and he failed his HIA so we will have to go through the return to play protocols with him.

“His personal care is of paramount importance so we will see how that goes.”

With only Sam Olver, who replaced Heathcote, and Jamie Shillcock able to fill the number 10 shirt Gold says he will look at what players are on the market to bring to Warriors ahead of Friday’s clash against Exeter Chiefs.

“Sam and Jamie are our options at the moment,” he continued.

“We are thin. We don’t have a bottomless pit of players so that’s what our challenge is now.

“We will have a look (at the situation).

“We will be hard at work now and see if we can get any re-enforcements in but there isn’t anyone jumping off the page at the moment.

“We were looking to bring in strength in depth and support these guys (over the summer) but unfortunately we weren’t able to get anybody.”

A Marcus Watson try gave Wasps the lead before Biyi Alo closed the gap when he went over just before half-time.

A Sam Olver penalty levelled the scores but Wasps ran out winners thanks to late tries from Willie Le Roux and Josh Bassett.

Despite his side’s efforts Gold insisted he was “very disappointed” to come away empty-handed.

“I am pretty proud of the huge amount of character the guys have shown, especially having had such an awful start injury-wise,” Gold said “We weren’t as bad as we were against Newcastle but in the last five or 10 minutes it was down to our own demise as we lost crucial line-outs.

“I don’t think anyone can question our heart and passion but we need to continue to work on our accuracy.

“Nick is a world-class tighthead so when he went off scrums became difficult.

“To lose him in the first move of the day was a blow and then to lose Tommy and then Ben (Te’o) it became too much for us.

“But I don’t want to ever take anything away from Wasps as they are a quality outfit and were constantly asking questions.”