Wales centre Tom Shanklin has been ruled out of Saturday's game with Argentina after fracturing a bone in his nose.
Wales centre likely to return to face Australia
Wales centre Tom Shanklin has been ruled out of Saturday's game with Argentina after fracturing a bone in his nose.
The Cardiff Blues centre suffered a clash of heads with team-mate Gethin Jenkins during the 17-13 victory over Samoa on Friday, and requires some time off.
However, Shanklin is expected to resume training during the week with a view to returning for the final autumn international against Australia on November 28.
"Tom has a small fracture to the nasal bone which will limit his involvement in preparations this week," said Wales team physiotherapist Mark Davies.
"It will therefore rule him out of selection for the Argentina game.
"There is a certain amount of swelling which will take a few days to settle down, but the injury requires no further treatment and he should be back in contention next week."
Johnathan Davies, who replaced Shanklin against Samoa, is most likely to start against the Pumas.
Ospreys centre Andrew Bishop has been called into the Wales training camp as cover.
Improvement
Flanker Andy Powell accepts Wales will need to increase their performance level for the Pumas, who have beaten their hosts four times from the last six attempts.
"We have to step up our game for Argentina," said Powell. "The set-piece went all right against Samoa, but the breakdown killed us.
"It went wrong against New Zealand as well and it is the one thing we need to work on.
"We are just not putting enough numbers in. We are going in ones and twos and it is going against us.
"But it can be put right through putting hard work in training into practice on the field against Argentina.
"They will be a tough side to break down as well, so we have a big week ahead of us."
Wales also need to sharpen their attacking game after making 11 line breaks against Samoa and claiming a solitary try through wing Leigh Halfpenny.
They have managed just two touchdowns - both from Halfpenny - in the last four home Tests, and unless a clinical cutting edge can be rediscovered, then Argentina could easily repeat their Millennium Stadium success of eight years ago.
Inconsistent
"We played in fits and starts against Samoa," conceded fly-half Dan Biggar, who is likely to make way for Wales' principal tactical controller Stephen Jones.
"Had a couple of passes or the bounce of the ball gone our way it could well have been 60-odd points, but it didn't.
"We've got to face facts that the ball didn't bounce our way and we didn't get that little bit of luck, and we have got to look at why that was.
"The main point is that we did have a lot of possession and territory and didn't make as good a use of it as we could have done.
"But it would have been a lot harder coming in on Monday having lost, rather than showing quite a lot of spirit in the end and coming through it."
