Wales star Jonah Holmes a doubt for Dragons' PRO14 return

The 28-year-old wing/full-back won caps against Georgia and Italy in the autumn but was not named in Wayne Pivac's Six Nations squad on Wednesday.

Wales will instead pick from Leigh Halfpenny, Liam Williams, George North, Josh Adams, Louis Rees-Zammit and former Dragon Hallam Amos in their back three for the championship.

The head coach revealed that Holmes hasn't been given the green light from a head injury suffered against the Scarlets on New Year's Day.

Dragons speedster Jonah Holmes races in for a try against Wasps

"We suspect he won't be able to play again for three to four weeks," said Pivac, who stated that Holmes also suffered a knock in the Champions Cup loss to Wasps at the start of December.

That time frame would rule the rapid back out of the Dragons' return to action in the PRO14 against Connacht on Friday, February 5 and possibly the clash with Edinburgh the following Friday.

Holmes signed from Leicester in the summer but has endured a stop-start campaign with seven appearances and a solitary try against Wasps.

Pivac said that livewire back Ioan Lloyd, who featured in the autumn but isn't in the squad, can prosper thanks to a run of games with Bristol and feels the same applies for the Dragons man.

"There are a lot of players since lockdown who haven't hit their straps fully and there is more to come," said Pivac. "Jonah in training with us was very impressive in the autumn. In the two games he came on in [against Georgia and Italy] I thought he was mistake free. "He ran strongly and was very physical so he is one who is unlucky through injury." Owen Jenkins, who is primarily a winger, played at full-back when the Dragons lost to the Ospreys at the start of the month, that coming after fly-half Josh Lewis had previously been used as a 15.

Jordan Williams could be an option for Dean Ryan on the return to action, although the director of rugby has previously stressed the need to be careful with the livewire runner.

The 27-year-old ruptured knee ligaments in November 2019 and returned in the European Challenge Cup quarter-final against Bristol and scored a double in the October PRO14 success against Zebre.

He hasn't played since then after complaining of tightness in his left leg – the one he injured previously – but could provide a boost to the back line.

"It's unrealistic to think that a high-speed athlete like Jordan is going to come back from an ACL and then play 15 games on the bounce," said Ryan at the start of the month.

"We probably pushed it a little bit in terms of him then injuring a hamstring and this time we might be a bit more cautious.

"We recognise the games that we have got stacking up in February with the potential of how the PRO14 will end. We have got one eye on that."

After the two rearranged games the Dragons finish the league campaign with fixtures against their Conference A rivals.

Five of their remaining seven encounters are at home with Connacht, Edinburgh, Leinster, Ulster and Glasgow heading for Rodney Parade while Ryan's men travel to the Ospreys and Zebre.