JOHN Brain has admitted that Worcester have hit a front row crisis.

The Sixways director of rugby now has his first three tight-head props out injured as the Warriors focus on Saturday's head-to-head with Bath.

Colin Noon -- only brought in to cover broken hand victim Chris Horsman -- suffered a back injury in Sunday's 16-10 defeat at Saracens and Neil Lyman is still struggling with a sternum problem.

It leaves Brain and head coach Andy Keast with the prospect of playing Lee Fortey at tight-head although the former Gloucester man is a specialist loose-head prop.

"We've reached crisis point," said Brain. "Colin's injury on Sunday really topped it off. He's got a muscle spasm in his back which he picked up while scrummaging.

"It's one of those injuries which we'll just have to monitor but the problem is that it affects our preparation.

Ability

"With Neil Lyman and Colin Noon not training, it obviously affects our ability to work on our set pieces and that is the biggest problem at the moment.

"Neil is probably back to where he was approaching the Newcastle match but, obviously, we don't want to hinder his progress.

"It's frustrating because it means you can't drill the scrum and it's an area which we want to work on."

Meanwhile, Worcester's Bath clash at Sixways is still not a sell out. The ticket office's phones were red-hot yesterday but there are still at least 1,000 up for grabs.

"I would expect us to have at least 7,000 supporters inside Sixways on Saturday," said ticket office manager Maxine James.

"We're not sold out yet but the telephones have been ringing non stop so they are going quickly. It's what you'd expect because it's such a big game."