Sam Harrison suffers nasty facial injury in Leicester's win over Worcester

Sam Harrison was taken to hospital after suffering a facial injury in Leicester's 31-17 win over Worcester, a result that sealed an Aviva Premiership play-off place for the Tigers.

Harrison was involved in a sickening clash of heads with Worcester centre Andy Symons at the start of the second half, which left both players with blood-stained faces.

While Symons returned to the field after treatment, Harrison was substituted and went to the hospital across the road to get checked out.

Coach Aaron Mauger said: "It was a nasty clash and there was lots of blood coming from his nose and mouth. Looking at the indent I'd say it's broken.

"He is going to hospital to get assessed so we will see how he is over the next few days. The medics told us it was a nasty one.

"He's a tough man, Sammy, and I'm sure if you gave him the opportunity he'd be back on the field tomorrow."

Leicester's bonus point win in front of a 21,682 crowd clinched them a semi-final place for the 12th successive season but Mauger was disappointed with the performance.

He felt the side were flat after four tough weeks, including last week's European Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Racing 92.

He said: "I'm pleased to get to the semis, it's a nice feeling. But the performance was a bit flat.

"It was probably a reflection of the last four weeks, four big, emotional games - Gloucester, the European quarter-final against Stade Francais, the derby against Northampton, and Racing.

"We could see during the week that the boys were mentally and emotionally flat and that transferred into the performance."

Leicester, in fourth place on 64 points, face Bath away in their final game and could play Saracens on their artificial pitch in the semi-finals.

Mauger ruled out practising on a similar pitch, saying: "We did that last time and it didn't work. The key for us is nailing our performance. It doesn't really matter, the pitch is 100 metres long, 70 metres wide with goal posts at either end."

Mauger said England centre Manu Tuilagi, who missed the game with a knee injury, was "touch and go" for next week's trip to Bath but will be okay for the semi-finals.

Worcester director of rugby Dean Ryan was left ruing several missed chances and said: "It was a great performance and we are disappointed we didn't win.

"We were always in the contest and we are frustrated we missed three or four chances. There were two forward pass decisions that were flat at best. They were tries.

"We are frustrated that it ended the way it did, a scrum reversal giving them the match and the bonus point. We were in the contest all the way through and looked sharp, dangerous and physical."