DIRECTOR of rugby Alan Solomons admitted Worcester Warriors have “missed” injured scrum-half Francois Hougaard as doubts still linger over his fitness.

However Solomons does expect to be boosted by the return of full-back Chris Pennell (head) and flanker Sam Lewis (ankle) for their Aviva Premiership clash with Newcastle Falcons at Sixways next Saturday (3pm).

Hougaard whose season has been hampered by injuries hobbled off with an ankle problem in Warriors’ 22-9 defeat at London Irish last month.

Solomons confirmed the 29-year-old had yet to return to training but said it was “too early” to tell whether he would be fit to face in-form Falcons.

“It is still early days, but he has got to feel right to be able to play,” Solomons said.

“Unfortunately these things happen with players. What can you do?

“He has missed a large section of this season.

“He is not (training) as he is still busy rehabbing at this point. But we are eight days away from the game so it’s probably too early to say.”

Warriors have tended to struggle without Hougaard who played a key role in steering the Sixways side to safety in the past two seasons.

With Hougaard unavailable, Worcester extended their losing streak to three games including a 58-25 thrashing at Sale Sharks last weekend.

But Solomons has bolstered his options at number nine with the signing of Grayson Hart from Ealing Trailfinders until the end of the season.

“Jonny Arr, Mikey Dowsett and Grayson are all good scrum-halves,” said Solomons whose side are 10 points clear of bottom club London Irish with four games left.

“Of course we miss Francois. He has played fantastically well for the club and is a proven international rugby player.

“We also miss Ryan Mills. He is absolutely great for us and is an international quality player, but he is injured and there is nothing we can do about it.”

Lewis was expected to play against Sale after overcoming a hamstring complaint but he then rolled his ankle in training.

Warriors were also dealt two further blows in the lead up to the Sharks clash when Pennell suffered a knock to his head and lock Anton Bresler picked up a calf strain.

“Chris is back and has trained fully,” Solomons said.

“He took a knock to the head so we took the precaution (not to play him).

“Sammy will be fine. Bressy is not 100 per cent there yet so we will see how he tracks.”