Exeter are waiting to hear the extent of a foot injury sustained by Jacques Vermeulen in their win over Newcastle.

It could be another blow for a player who missed much of last season with a shoulder injury.

“He’ll have to have an X-ray to see if something’s broken or it’s a ligament,” Exeter boss Rob Baxter said.

“It doesn’t look great, which is a bit of a story of the season for us, but we’ll have to assess it on Monday and see where it is,” he added to BBC Radio Devon.

“We are a week away from the last game of the Six Nations, so hopefully we will get all our back-five forwards back from there and that will help thicken us out a little bit in that department.”

Exeter lost prop Harry Williams to a ‘significant injury’ last week, and are also without England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie.