Bristol Bears travel to Kingsholm on Friday night to take on Gloucester Rugby in Round Four of the 2025/26 Gallagher PREMEllis Genge of Bristol Bears gestures. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Bristol Bears will be without their talismanic British and Irish Lions loosehead prop Ellis Genge for Friday night’s trip to Kingsholm to take on Gloucester Rugby in Round Four of the Gallagher PREM, in yet another short-term injury setback.

Genge made his club comeback in last weekend’s 18-14 win over Exeter Chiefs, after missing the first two rounds of league action due his mandatory 10 weeks of rest following the conclusion of the Lions tour to Australia, which ran into August.

The England star limped off the pitch in the second half following a knock to his shin and was seen icing it on the sidelines, but it is in fact an unsuccessful HIA that has ruled him out of this weekend’s game.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam explained the slightly unusual situation. He said: “Ellis came off after he took a knock to his shin.

“I took him off, and then the independent match doctor called out that he needed to go through an HIA, which surprised him, and he doesn’t wear the mouth guard, so he had to do another different type of HIA, but he basically failed the process. So he was pretty frustrated, and that means that he’s ruled out too for this week, with it being a six-day turnaround.”

There were plenty of failed HIAs going around at Ashton Gate on Saturday as the Bears’ put their bodies on the line to grind out a victory, but it proved costly with both Jack Bates and Josh Carrington also ruled out for this weekend having taken blows to the head against Exeter.

Meanwhile, Scottish international fly-half Tom Jordan has been suspended for three games for his high tackle on Chiefs number eight Ross Vintcent which means he is unlikely to feature for the Bears until the last weekend of November when they host Northampton Saints.

Revealing the full extent of the injury devastation to his backline, Lam said: “So we now have officially 13 backs unavailable. Ten of them are English qualified. Eight of them have had surgeries or are going to have surgeries. It is a good challenge.”

“A few of them will start to come back in, some in December, some in January, some a bit later, so we’ve got a couple of months to navigate.”

Amongst those sidelined are an entire PREM-worthy backline of Harry Randall, AJ MacGinty, Gabriel Ibitoye, Jordan, James Williams, Louis Rees-Zammit and Rich Lane, with plenty of others not mentioned.

Lam has eased the blow by bringing in Argentina international Matias Moroni, USA international Toby Fricker and Oscar Lennon, but remains down to the bare bones, with players doing the lightest of training this week to ensure he can get a competitive side on the field on Friday.

In better news, Lam confirmed that former All Black Steven Luatua has recovered from a training ground knock that ruled him out of the Chiefs game and he should be available for selection in the Rifles Cup away at the Cherry and Whites.