Full-back McNicholl and winger Tom Prydie were both injured in Scarlets’ Guinness PRO14 defeat to Leinster in Dublin last Saturday afternoon. The Welsh region have confirmed both players aren’t likely to return to action before the start of next season after undergoing surgery.
McNicholl had surgery to fix his shoulder injury on Tuesday, while Prydie will go under the knife to rectify an ankle problem on Thursday.
“Johnny has had his surgery and it was a success,” said Wayne Pivac.
“We are now focusing on getting him rehabbed and hopefully we will be fresh and ready to go for the start of next season. With regards to Tom our medical team have given us a window of between 10 and 12 weeks. He could be back for the start of May all going well.
“Shoulder injuries are assessed by a scan which Johnny had after the Ospreys game. He went to see the surgeon and rehab was the decision after that game. With those things you can rehab in order to get through to the end of the season and then have a clean up but sometimes it can go again. His went simply by scoring a try.
“When the surgeon went in he found there was some damage in there that wasn’t shown on the scan. These things can happen.”
In the absence of Prydie and McNicholl the Scarlets will put faith their faith in Wales under twenty duo Corey Baldwin and Ryan Conbeer.
“We’ve had to call on a lot of the young guys which hurts the under 20’s but it’s just where we are at in terms of our squad at the moment,” said Pivac.
“Ioan Nicholas has been playing consistently for us while the internationals are away and there’s Corey Baldwin who we pulled in over the last couple of weeks.
“We’ve now called in Ryan Conbeer from the Under 20’s. It’s a good opportunity for these guys who have been very exciting in training and have been putting in a lot of effort.
“They are about to get tested on a pretty decent stage against an Ulster team that’s got the same motivation as we’ve got.”
