Davies the latest doubt for Wales

Injury-hit Wales have suffered another potential blow ahead of next week's autumn Test series opener against Australia in Cardiff.

Coach Warren Gatland has already lost British and Irish Lions trio Lee Byrne, Leigh Halfpenny and Ryan Jones from the Wallabies clash on November 6. And they could now be joined by in-form Scarlets centre Jonathan Davies, who suffered an ankle injury during training on Wednesday.

"Jon Davies has gone down with an injury in training," said Gatland of the the player widely expected to fill one of the centre positions in Australia. "It limits our midfield options a little bit. But you can't dwell on it - you have got to put it behind you."

There was no immediate news on the extent of his injury, but it could possibly be a recurrence of the ankle problem Davies ustained while on Magners League duty for the Scarlets against Newport Gwent Dragons last month.

Given the powerful Davies' lack of game-time since then, he had been set to be released for the Scarlets' appointment with Glasgow on Saturday.

If Davies is ruled out of the Wallabies encounter - and his prospective midfield partner James Hook is moved to full-back as replacement for broken hand victim Byrne - then a new-look centre pairing of Andrew Bishop and Tom Shanklin could feature.

Byrne, meanwhile, is set to miss the first three November games against Australia, South Africa and Fiji, and earlier this week was given only an outside chance of being fit to face New Zealand in the autumn finale.

Back-row forward Jones will be reassessed following the Wallabies fixture after being laid low by a torn calf muscle, but wing Halfpenny (ankle ligaments) has already left the Wales squad and been replaced by the Dragons' Aled Brew.