The 29-year-old Grand Slam winner injured his shoulder in the New Year’s Day win over Newport Gwent Dragons in the Guinness PRO12 and has yet to shake off the effects. The Ospreys host Pool 2 leaders ASM Clermont Auvergne at the Liberty Stadium on Friday night.
Ospreys head coach Steve Tandy said Lydiate was “touch and go” for this weekend, but expects him to be fully fit for the final round trip to Exeter Chiefs if he fails to make it for Friday.
“We are waiting for Dan to get the strength back in his arm and it will be touch-and-go for the weekend. I don’t see it being a long-term issue and, hopefully, he will be fully fit for Exeter next week,” said Tandy. “We are going to look at Dan on Wednesday, but Dmitri Arhip will probably be a no-go with his rib injury.”
Better news for the Tandy is that Fijian World Cup centre Josh Matavesi is back in non-contact training and looks set to make a return on Friday to help his side tackle the midfield threat posed by Wesley Fofana and Jonathan Davies in the Clermont midfield.
“Josh is up and running, so we are hopeful he’ll be available. We know all about the threats they have across their back line and our first-up tacking will be very important,” added Tandy.
“When the pools were drawn we were made fourth favourites in our group, but we have our destiny in our own hands coming into the final two rounds and that is great. We are hugely excited by the challenge ahead of us and it would be fantastic for the club and for Welsh rugby if we could qualify.
“Normally when we get to this part of the season our chances of qualifying are handing by a thread and we are just playing for pride. Now we have the chance to achieve something that many people thought we were capable of.
“We believe in what we are doing and this group of players is massively committed. We won’t be sitting back on Friday night, we will go into the game with a positive mind-set.”
The Ospreys picked up two losing bonus points in their 34-29 defeat at Stade Marcel-Michelin and have already beaten Clermont twice at home in the European Cup in the past. In fact, no French team has won a Champions Cup tie at the Liberty Stadium since the Ospreys moved into their new home in 2005.
They have won 10 and drawn two of their games against Top 14 opposition and will be hping it is ‘lucky 13’ against Morgan Parra’s men to enable them to go to Sandy Park next week with every chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals for the first time since 2010.
Prior to their move to the Liberty Stadium they beat Castres Olympique 20-11 at The Gnoll, Neath, and lost their first home game to a French club in Europe in their founding season of 2003/04 against Toulouse, 29-11, also in Neath.
FRENCH FAILURES AT THE LIBERTY STADIUM
2005/06: bt Stade Francais Paris 13-8, bt ASM Clermont Auvergne 26-12
2006/07: drew Stade Francais Paris 22-22
2007/08: bt Bourgoin 22-15
2008/09: bt Perpignan 15-9
2009/10: bt ASM Clermont Auvergne 25-24
2010/11: bt Toulon 29-17
2011/12: bt Biarritz Olympique 28-21
2012/13: bt Toulouse 17-6
2013/14: bt Castres Olympique 21-12
2014/15: drew Racing 92 19-19
2015/16: bt Bordeaux-Begles 19-16
