Dragons suffer Woodman bicep injury blow

Dragons flanker Ryan Woodman to have surgery on a bicep injury, ruling him out of contention for Wales' Nations Championship campaign. Dragons flanker Ryan Woodman has been ruled out until late December after suffering a bicep injury. The 22-year-old will miss the chance to push for selection in Wales' Nations Championship campaign in November. Blind-side flanker Woodman, who can also play lock, was called up to the Six Nations squad for the injured Taine Plumtree last season. He came on as a replacement in June's uncapped international against the Barbarians at Twickenham but missed out on the Nations Championship summer squad. "Ryan has seen a specialist and will go for surgery on Friday, then get under way with his recovery," said Dragons defence coach Dale MacLeod.

Woodman started the 19-19 draw against Benetton in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and came on as a replacement in the 38-26 victory against Scarlets. He will now target a return in late December, with back-to-back derbies against Cardiff on 19 and 26 December before a 2 January trip to Scarlets. "Anyone of that quality is a big loss, and it's a big year for him as part of that Welsh group building towards the World Cup," continued MacLeod. "The good thing is that he is not gone for 12 months; he'll work hard