Not another one! Scotland head coach Townsend calls up Reed due to concerns over key man Van Der Merwe's fitness... a day after skipper Tuipulotu was ruled out of Six Nations
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Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has called up Arron Reed to his Six Nations squad due to ongoing concerns over the fitness of Duhan van der Merwe. The Edinburgh winger has been nursing an ankle injury sustained in his side’s Challenge Cup match away to Vannes 10 days ago and has yet to return to full training.
![[Arron Reed has been called up for the Six Nations as cover for Duhan van der Merwe]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/21/13/94347427-14308933-image-a-39_1737467486821.jpg)
Losing van der Merwe would be a colossal blow on the back of Sione Tuipulotu and Scott Cummings both being ruled out for the duration of the tournament but Townsend is cautiously optimistic that the South African-born flier will be fine for Scotland’s opener against Italy a week on Saturday.
Reed, though, has been called up as a precaution in the meantime and to provide additional numbers in training. Speaking at the official Guinness Six Nations launch in Rome, Townsend said: ‘We’ve called Arron Reed into the squad and he’ll be training today.
It’s to cover Duhan this week who has a couple of niggles so we’re still keeping an eye on how he’s tracking. Tuipulotu (right) has already been ruled out, while there are concerns over Van Der Merwe. Arron Reed has been called up for the Six Nations as cover for Duhan van der Merwe.
‘We don’t see any problems for next week but it might still need to be managed this week in training. 'Because we were quite tight with our squad - Sione is missing and players are training in different positions - we still thought we would be okay but then with Duhan not training today, maybe not training tomorrow, we’d fail to make our training function.
