SCRUM-HALF Luke Baldwin has been ruled out for the rest of Worcester Warriors’ Aviva Premiership campaign with a knee injury.

But director of rugby Alan Solomons insists the ligament damage is not as bad as first feared and expects Baldwin to be back fit in time for the start of pre-season.

The 27-year-old was stretchered off on the hour mark in Warriors’ 34-5 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Sixways earlier this month.

And Solomons confirmed Baldwin would not play again this term.

“It is a grade two medial knee ligament injury so it is not as bad as first anticipated,” Solomons said.

“Obviously it’s not great, but he should be back in time to start pre-season.

“He definitely won’t play another game this season.”

Baldwin replaced Jonny Arr with 25 minutes to go as Warriors looked to reduce their 15-5 deficit.

But he lasted just five minutes before suffering the injury.

With Baldwin and Arr off, Jamie Shillcock was forced to move to number nine and Jackson Willison to fly-half before Leicester scored three tries to wrap up the victory.

“Due to the nature of the game I thought Luke would provide a spark,” Solomons said.

“There is always a risk when you bring on a scrum-half when there is roughly 30 minutes to go.

“Sadly he picked up the injury but it is not as bad as first feared.

“There was a concern at one stage that all the ligaments had been done but that’s not the case.”

Solomons also said Baldwin who has recently agreed a three-year contract would not have to go under the knife to repair the problem.

“He is in a brace and eight to 10 weeks is the current thinking,” said Solomons on when Baldwin was likely to return.

“It is a grade two so they don’t need to operate.”

Francois Hougaard missed the Leicester game with an ankle issue but Solomons said the influential scrum-half was “on the mend”.

Michael Dowsett has also recovered from a broken hand to provide competition with Arr for the starting jersey.

“Francois is on the mend,” said Solomons whose side visit Sale Sharks a week on Saturday (3pm).

“We have got to wait to see how he tracks over the next short while.

“Mikey Dowsett is back so we do have three scrum-halves.

“We are down one and it is a key position but hopefully we will be alright there.”

Warriors' players have come back to training after a week off and Solomons said the break had helped his troops recover following a punishing four-game block of Premiership action.

“They had a really tough four weeks,” Solomons added.

“In every single game we had over 200 tackles so there has been a massive effort from the team.

“They had a week's break which I think they have thoroughly deserved.

“They have come back refreshed and we will have a proper lead into that Sale game.

“I think the break has done them a lot of good, not only physically but mentally as well.”