Scotland stand off Finn Russell is unlikely to be fit for the start of next season but his club coach has admitted to relief that the consequences of the injury he suffered during the Pro12 semi-final were not significantly worse.

The 23-year-old play-maker was stretchered off in the early stages of that defeat in Connacht last month and there were fears that the head injury was sufficiently severe to be career threatening.

However Gregor Townsend yesterday reported that he will not require surgery and is ‘making excellent progress.’

“He’s seen a lot of specialists and every time he’s seen someone they’ve said great, you don’t require surgery and he’s now looking great as well,” said the Warriors’ head coach,.

“He came back in excellent spirits. We do realise he’s going to be out longer than a normal head injury because it was a nasty injury but he’s making great progress.”

Townsend admitted to having been deeply worried by Russell’s condition both as he left the pitch and afterwards, skull and cheekbone damage having been incurred while he was also concussed.

“At the time we knew it was a serious injury when someone has to get oxygen and go off the field, but the game obviously kept on going and we didn’t realise until that evening that it was very serious, so the night in hospital was a worrying time for everyone, but since then he’s made excellent progress,” he reiterated.

The necessary contingency planning has caused some complication.

“We’re taking it stage by stage so he’s got through that initial period without requiring surgery, so he’s able to start moving again, but every week he’s checking in with neurologist,” said Townsend.

“We’ve got Peter (Horne) and Rory Clegg and we are looking to bring in someone else, whether via our academy or someone in our squad we should be able to announce something in the next week or two and Stuart Hogg can cover 10 if one of those were injured.

“So we don’t expect Finn to miss too much but we do understand he might not play at the beginning of the season.”

When he does come back he can look forward to playing on a much more consistent surface after yesterday’s confirmation that the Scotstoun pitch is to be replaced by a new synthetic surface in time for the new season.

Following the announcement of Glasgow City Council’s approval of the plans Townsend welcomed that development, claiming it would help the team’s style of play.

“I’m a massive fan of playing on the artificial pitches,” he said.

“Players have grown to love them. You speak to someone like Sean Lamont, he loves playing on the Cardiff pitch and he’s our oldest player and the youngest guys have been brought up on them.

“It suits the way we want to play a high tempo game, there’s still going to be times we play in rain but at least the pitch won’t change. The ball might get a bit wet, but we’re not going to be slowed down when we’re playing at home.”

Such pitches continue to be controversial in football circles but Townsend reckoned that is because they are less accustomed to them, saying: “With footballers, they probably don't train very often [on an artificial surface] so it is going to be a shock to the system.”