GLASGOW coach Danny Wilson has declared he has every confidence in back-up stand-offs Ross Thompson and Ian Keatley as he prepares to do without Adam Hastings for a number of weeks.

Last night the Warriors had yet to learn when the PRO14 will hold a disciplinary hearing into Hastings’ sending-off in his team’s defeat by Leinster at the weekend, but they are working on the presumption that he will be unavailable at least for Saturday’s game against Zebre.

Twenty-one-year-old Thompson has acquitted himself well since coming into the team in recent weeks, thanks in part to his work on the training pitch with the vastly experienced Keatley, who joined Glasgow for the rest of the season in January. Even if Hastings is only suspended for a couple of weeks, he is likely to be unavailable to the Warriors in any case as he will be back in the Scotland squad - a factor which has made Keatley’s work with Thompson all the more important, according to Wilson.

“That was the reason we brought Ian in,” the coach explained. “We probably got Adam more than we thought over these [last] two games, because he came back [from injury] quicker than we expected.

“Adam would probably have come into Scotland's reckoning pretty quickly, so we didn't think we would have him for very long. As it happens, there's a good chance we won't have him for different reasons now, so to have Ross and Keats is great.

“Ian Keatley has been great for Ross to help him develop behind the scenes. Sometimes you make signings of the likes of Keats for what they can do on the field, but also what they bring in terms of helping your younger players to develop. He’s certainly fulfilled that up to now.”

Hastings was sent off late in the first half of his team’s defeat at the RDS after catching a ball in the air and extending his right leg, which made contact with Leinster winger Cian Kelleher’s head. Wilson remains convinced there was no intent in the incident, and if a disciplinary panel agrees, the stand-off may only get a two-week ban - something which would rule him out of Scotland’s home game against Ireland on Sunday week.

“We'll just have to wait and see how they view that one,” the coach continued. “He was off balance, toppling backwards, and his leg came up in front of him. That left his foot in a dangerous position for the next guy coming in. We understand the safety element and that by the letter of the law it's probably a red card, but there was no intent there.”

The Warriors could also be without Richie Gray for the game in Parma because of a head knock he received against Leinster. Gray’s involvement in the game ended at that point, and although there was no immediate cause for concern, Wilson is determined to err on the side of caution given the lock was out with concussion for a time last year.

“Richie did have a minor bang on the head – only a minor one – but we have to be very careful with him because of his history. It’s nothing too severe, nothing we’re massively worried about, so we’ll make the relevant decisions based on the process he goes through. “It’s a six-day turnaround, which does have its restricting factors, so if there’s any doubt whatsoever, we won’t be playing him. We’ll see how he goes.”

It remains to be seen if Leone Nakarawa, the other starting lock in last Sunday’s 40-21 defeat, will also sit out the Zebre match. The Fijian, who is leaving Glasgow for Ulster in the summer, still looks well short of match fitness since returning from a knee injury that kept him out of action for several months.

“He’s got a lot of work to do, hasn’t he?, if I’m being brutally honest,” Wilson said. “Any player who has been out of the game for a long period of time needs a bit of time to get back into things. And I’m sure that Leone will bounce back to that type of form by getting more match fit and through the knee and leg being more comfortable in games. “He’s fit to play, but we probably need to get him match fit. We’ll see how the next few weeks go with that process.”

While Hastings, Gray and Nakarawa have all presented Wilson with problems of various kinds, the emergence of several other young players in addition to Thompson has convinced the coach to be optimistic for next season and indeed for the rest of the current campaign.

“We had Cole Forbes and Rufus McLean learning lessons in Leinster and that will do them a world of good for next season and beyond,” he added. “I’ve experienced that before at other clubs, where you go through a little bit of pain but when you come out the other end you hopefully get a far better product for the future.”