Bristol Bears host Gloucester Rugby on Friday night in Round 13 of the 2025/26 Gallagher PREM
Gloucester’s Tomos Williams and head coach George Skivington (Photo by Bob Bradford – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Gloucester Rugby and Wales star scrum-half Tomos Williams looks likely to be unavailable for Friday night’s Gallagher PREM clash with Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate as he is in the latter stages of his recovery from a shoulder injury.
Williams, who will join Saracens in the summer to bring an end to a two-year spell in Cherry and White, injured his shoulder in the 17th minute of the 26-19 win against Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop last month after colliding with team mate Jack Innard.
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Williams missed Gloucester’s disappointing 17-36 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Villa Park because of the injury and was joined on the sidelines by fellow scrum-halves Mikey Austin and short-term signing Callum Braley for that game, leaving Caolon Engfield and 22-year-old Rhys Price, who has sent most of the year playing for Champ Rugby side Hartpury, to fill the void in the specialist position.
Providing an update on his squad, Gloucester head coach George Skivington said: “Yeah, it’s improved. Mikey [Austin] is back in training fully. Tommy [Williams] is running again. So Cal’s not quite there yet. But yeah, that’s looking a bit healthier.
“Tomos got a bang to his shoulder. It wasn’t horrendous or anything like that. I think he has probably just played a lot of rugby, to be honest, coming off the back of the Six Nations. And, you know, when lads are fatigued, the bangs take a little bit longer. But he’s there or thereabouts. We’ll make a call on him for the weekend. He’s not bad. He’s in a good spot.”
In the backline, the Cherry and Whites also look set to be bolstered by the return of winger Ben Loader, who has missed the majority of the campaign after suffering back-to-back hamstring injuries. The 27-year-old’s last run out was against Saracens back in December.
Skivington said, “Ben Loader is back in training now, so Ben Loader is good to go, but Josh Hathaway is out for the season; he hurt his hamstring.”
Having been blighted by injuries throughout the 2025/26 campaign, Skivington said his side can’t hide behind that excuse for the final six games of the league campaign, with one eye already on building into next season as the Cherry and White find themselves adrift in eighth place in the table, but looking over their shoulders with ninth place Harlequins just a point behind and chasing that final Champions Cup spot.
He added: “Overall, we’ve got as many fit players now as we have all season. So that’s a positive going into the last six games as well.”
Divulging his thinking on selection ahead of facing play-off chasing Bristol, Skivington said: “If there’s a tight call and I don’t think it’s going to affect performance, I’m going to give some people opportunities and the lads know that.
“We’ve had really good selection discussions over the last week or so as coaches, and there are a few lads going into the Bristol game who are gutted they’re not playing. And that’s sort of as healthy as we have been.”
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