WORCESTER Warriors wing Andy Short will be out of action for at least eight weeks after damaging his ankle earlier this month.

The former Bristol player was injured in the early stages of Worcester’s 43-35 defeat against the Barbarians in their opening warm-up at Sixways.

Short has had an operation on his injured ankle and will miss the start of Worcester’s Aviva Premiership campaign, which begins against Northampton Saints at Sixways on October 16 (7.45pm).

Warriors director of rugby Dean Ryan revealed: “Andy Short has separated the bone from the ligament which holds the two bones in the ankle. That will put him out for a significant number of weeks.

“We are probably talking about six to eight weeks to start with and then we will see from there.

“It’s quite a blow for Andy because he’s come back to the club and looked sharp for five minutes in the opening friendly.”

New Zealand utility back Bryce Heem is currently in his homeland and will play the entirety of Auckland’s ITM Cup campaign.

Should Auckland progress to the knockout stages, the Kiwi flyer might not be arriving in England until late October.

“Sooner Auckland are out of the ITM Cup the sooner he will be here,” said Ryan.

“There are four or five teams sat on the same num - ber of points. The next few weekends will define that competition.”

Warriors are preparing for their second warm-up match against Midlands rivals Wasps at Sixways on Saturday (3pm).

Worcester’s latest re - cruit, South African centre Wynand Olivier, could feature.

“The Baa-Baas match was about getting our new people a game because there’s nothing worse than being at a new club and not playing,”said Ryan.

“We recognised the performance would be a little bit disjointed but we were pleased with all the individuals.

“I think this weekend we will more established faces and a few more established combinations and see if we can sprinkle some of those guys back in.”