Talks continue as Saints look to resolve loosehead crisis ahead of trip to Sandy Park

The black, green and gold have been badly hit by injuries, losing all four of their senior loosehead props to injury.

Alex Waller is still working his way back from an Achilles problem suffered in February, while Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi is out for up to a year after suffering a similar injury in the recent defeat at Bristol Bears.

Nick Auterac (hip flexor) was also forced off in that match at Ashton Gate before Francois van Wyk added to the tale of woe, leaving the field with a knee problem in the defeat at Leicester Tigers last Sunday.

It means Saints only have England Under-20s prop Manny Iyogun, who played 55 minutes at Welford Road last weekend, to call on.

Champions Cup rules require clubs who have qualified for the quarter-finals to register their squad on or before September 1.

Saints have of course already done that so any new player they could bring in would be unregistered.

And that means they have been forced to ask EPCR for an exemption to allow them to take two looseheads to Sandy Park on Sunday evening.

Talks continue and with the clock ticking down, news on the decision should not be too far away.

A short EPCR statement read: "The additional registration request of Northampton Saints is being considered by the EPCR Board."