WORCESTER Warriors’ pre-season injury curse has struck again with several players set for lengthy spells on the sidelines.

Back-row Marco Mama faces the longest road to recovery after sustaining “significant” damage to his knee in a “freak” training ground incident.

The 26-year-old has undergone surgery, but is likely to be out for most of the 2017/18 campaign.

To add to Warriors’ woes, scrum-half Luke Baldwin (bicep) and tighthead prop Simon Kerrod (groin) have been ruled out for between “eight and 10 weeks”.

“Marco will be out for a significant period of time,” said Hogg after Warriors’ shock 24-15 defeat at Birmingham Moseley last Friday.

“He injured his knee playing conditioning touch (rugby), so it was a completely freak accident.

“I think he will get back (this season), but it will probably be post-Christmas or a little bit beyond that, so it is a significant injury.

“But he has had surgery and it is a case of having his rehab.”

Kerrod, who arrived from Jersey Reds this summer, was forced off just 40 minutes into his debut after pulling up in Warriors’ 55-21 win over Hartpury.

Baldwin also had to be replaced in the first-half following a reoccurrence of an injury which kept him out for two months last term.

“Luke has done a very similar injury which he did last year against Harlequins where he has popped a bicep tendon off his elbow,” Hogg continued.

“So he will be out for somewhere between eight and 10 weeks.

“That’s a major blow for Luke as I thought he was training fantastically well during pre-season, but sometimes these things happen.

“He has had surgery and now it is about rehabbing as quickly as we possibly can.

“Simon has unfortunately pulled his abductor off the bone and he will be out for that eight to 10-week period too.”

Warriors are also without flankers David Denton (ankle), Dewald Potgieter (knee) and Carl Kirwan (shoulder), props Nick Schonert (finger), Ethan Waller (shoulder) and Gareth Milasinovich (hamstring), hooker Niall Annett (hamstring), centre Max Stelling (ankle), full-back Chris Pennell (calf) and versatile back Ryan Mills (hip and shoulder).

The Sixways side also had players on the treatment table going into last season.

But Hogg insisted the type of injuries they were dealing with were “different” and was hopeful of getting some of them back fit for Warriors’ Aviva Premiership opener at Newcastle Falcons on Friday, September 1.

“I think the nature of the injuries are different this year,” he said.

“They have tended to be game and collision-based injuries - whether that’s knees or ankles - whereas last year it tended to be more sort tissue injuries.”

Question marks remain over the fitness of lock Will Spencer, number eight Alafoti Fa’osiliva and scrum-half Michael Dowsett as Warriors have yet to confirm why they have not played in either pre-season game.

“There are one or two players that didn’t play (against Moseley) that we are holding back,” Hogg added.

“There are one or two that are very close to returning from long-term injuries and surgical procedures during the off-season so we will try to integrate them as quickly as we can.”