Wales were made to work hard for a bonus-point victory over Georgia on Saturday, but lost veteran No 8 Taulupe Faletau to a tournament-ending injury.
Faletau went off in the second half of the 43-19 win and Wales coach Warren Gatland confirmed after the match that the Test centurion had broken his arm, ruling him out of the World Cup playoffs.
Wales also saw experienced playmaker Gareth Anscombe withdraw from the starting lineup after pulling up in the warm up, while fullback Liam Williams is also an injury concern.
“Toby’s (Faletau) broken his arm, so he will be out,” Gatland said. “We’re going to assess Gareth over the next 72 hours. He’s pulled his groin very high up.
“Talking to the medics, he’s got a bit of power still in his leg which is a positive, it means it hasn’t fully come off the bone. We’ll probably know in the next 48-72 hours in terms of what we need to do with him, whether we have got time for him to recover or whether we need to make a replacement.
“We’ve got to look at a replacement for Faletau, whether that is directly as a loose-forward replacement or whether we look at another position. We’ve got a few sore players, particularly in the backs, after today’s game.
“If you do see Liam Williams on crutches, it’s not that he’s done anything significantly bad, he got a whack on the knee and the medics have, from a comfort perspective, just put him on some crutches.
“He probably won’t take a huge part in training in the early part of next week but hopefully he’ll be fit for the quarter-final.”
Faletau had started all four of Wales’ matches as the Dragons went unbeaten to finish first in Pool C, ahead of Fiji and Australia.
“We felt that he was starting to come back to his best,” Gatland said. “He was excellent last week in terms of his footwork and carrying and stuff, taking kick-offs and giving us some go-forward as well.
“It’s a big loss for us. We’ll just have to make a decision in terms of how we look at the balance of the back row going forward and in particular for next week.”
Photo: LOIC VENANCE / AFP