Saracens are without two, Northampton and Wasps one each, but top of the treatment table are Leicester, who continue to soldier on without Manu Tuilagi, Tom Croft and Geoff Parling.
It is the tip of an injury iceberg at Welford Road which threatens the Tigers’ Heineken Cup future as they prepare to take on Montpellier back to back.
But having ground out successive league wins over the past fortnight to keep themselves in touch domestically, the English champions are relying on their mile-wide stubborn streak to do the same in Europe.
“Not every season goes the way you want it to and I’ve never known one like this for longterm injuries. We have a lot of guys missing and a lot of them are big-game players,†said Leicester hooker Tom Youngs, one of three Lions still standing at the club.
“It would have been interesting to see how other sides would have coped but we have been dealing with it. Leicester are one of the sides who can do. It’s a huge challenge but we like challenges.
“OK, we haven’t been scoring awesome tries but if we win ugly it doesn’t matter. It’s four points. It’s about grinding out the wins.
“It’s credit to the spirit we have in the side that we just say, ‘There we go’ and grit it out.
“If it means we have to make 250 tackles in a game then we’ll make them.â€
The wider injury situation at the club, which has been particularly severe in the backline, will ease a little tomorrow with the return of Vereneki Goneva at centre, which removes any chance of an emergency return to the midfield position Youngs left behind four years ago.
“If I needed to do it, I’d do it but to be honest I don’t know if I could play in the backline anymore. Maybe I could but the game moves on so quickly and defensively it has got harder,†he said.
Tom Youngs is still fighting fit after injury
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