Pat Lam provides an insight into the fitness and health of some of his key squad membersHarry Thacker of Bristol Bears runs with the ball . (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Pat Lam has revealed both his first and second choice hookers suffered training ground incidents last week to thrust emergency signing Nathan Langdon straight into the matchday 23 to face an Argentina XV last weekend.

Once again, luck was not on Bristol Bears’ side in the build-up to the exhibition game at Ashton Gate, which they went on to lose 38-14, with both Harry Thacker and Gabriel Oghre ruled out of the match late in the week.

READ MORE: Pat Lam left speechless by another double injury hit for Bristol Bears

Thacker had even done the pre-match press conference to promote the game in a clear sign of his likely involvement.

Twenty-two-year-old academy hooker Tomas Gwilliam started the game, with Weston-super-Mare’s Langdon on the bench, having arrived at the Bears High Performance Training centre on Monday.

Bristol director of rugby Lam explained: “Nathan Langdon made his debut, there were a couple of plays we wanted to use but we couldn’t because he doesn’t know them yet.

“He is only here short term at the moment, just to plug some gaps and we were lucky, because of Oghre and Thacker were going to start in the Argentina game, they were all set to go and then both of them took knocks in our last training run, which is a bummer.

“Both of them shouldn’t be too bad but we had to pull them out at the last minute, Nathan was only supposed to be cover, outside of the matchday 23 but he stepped in at the last minute.”

Thacker’s training ground knock is understood to be a concussion, meaning he should be in contention to return to face Exeter Chiefs in the PREM Rugby Cup, potentially, but certainly for the crucial Gallagher PREM game at home to Northampton Saints on November 29, with the Bears looking to stay in the play-off race.

There was good news on the injury front from the Argentina camp this week, with confirmation that Bears lock Pedro Rubiolo has recovered from a foot sprain he picked up in the 40-15 defeat to Bath Rugby, which saw him sidelined for the Pumas’ 52-28 win over Wales on Sunday.

He is now in contention to face clubmate Tom Jordan this weekend when Argentina take on Scotland.

In another slice of positive injury news, Lam revealed the Bears are also hoping to have tighthead prop Gorge Kloska back to face the Saints with the academy graduate having picked up a knock in recent weeks.