SCOTLAND’S Rugby World Cup hopes were dealt a blow yesterday when Grant Gilchrist was ruled out of the tournament with a groin injury.

Glasgow stand-off Finn Russell, meanwhile, will receive more treatment on an ankle knock before the medical staff decide whether he can take part in Scotland’s next game, against South Africa at St James’ Park, Newcastle, on Saturday.

Gilchrist came off midway through the first half in Sunday’s 39-16 win against the United States that took Scotland back to the top of Pool B. The news of his withdrawal was announced by the camp yesterday morning.

“Devastated,” the 25-year-old tweeted. “Big thanks for the support. All the best to the boys for the rest of the tournament.”

Scottish Rugby released a statement explaining why the second row could not carry on. “Gilchrist sustained the soft tissue damage in the 19th minute of the national team's 39-16 win over USA yesterday, with the recovery period expected to extend beyond the competition,” it said. “Finn Russell has sustained an inversion injury to his ankle, which will require further care and assessment.

“A number of other players will require the ongoing care of the national medical team, however these are not considered an immediate concern.”

Gilchrist and Glasgow’s Jonny Gray had become head coach Vern Cotter’s first-choice combination in the second row. Jonny’s brother Richie could now start against the Springboks instead. Scotland have the right to bring a replacement into the squad for any player who is ruled out because of injury.

Meanwhile, after a day’s rest and recuperation yesterday, Scotland will today start the countdown to the South Africa match. Former Glasgow winger Sean Maitland, now with London Irish, warned that if they play as badly in the first half against the South Africans as they did against the US they will lose. South Africa were back at their best against Samoa on Saturday and now seem to have recovered completely from their shock defeat by Japan on the first weekend of the competition.

“After their opening game they’ve had a wake-up call,” Maitland said. “A lot of pressure was put on them before their match against Samoa.

“They hammered Samoa, but we know if we play like we did on Sunday in the first half then they’ll hammer us too.

“We need to get out of the blocks a lot quicker if we’re to stand a chance. They will have looked at our two games and said that Scotland are vulnerable in the first half.

“But we know what we need to do. We know that even against Samoa if we start the way we have against Japan and the USA then we’ll get punished.”

Scotland were 13-6 down at half-time against the Americans, and 12-7 up against Japan, but recovered to score five tries in each game and win both well. Maitland said that, although they obviously wanted to be on top of their game from kick-off, the good thing about those two games was the way they recovered after being under pressure.

“It’s always good to come through so well, especially after the way we played in the first 40 minutes. The US game was very much like the Japan game - we let ourselves down, made too many mistakes and allowed them to stay in the game.

“We’ve all been in these situations before. We can handle the basics things when we’re under pressure.”