Newcastle Falcons' injury concerns are so severe they have been forced to name 11 replacements ahead of fitness tests on their crocked stars - including England captain Jonny Wilkinson.
The full list of seven replacements will not be announced until one hour before kick-off.
Falcons director of rugby Rob Andrew said: "We do have a lot of guys missing, but our Heineken Cup campaign so far has been littered with problems like that, such as when we went down to Newport without a hooker and won, so it won't faze us going into a game without some our key players.
"Jonny is no more than 50/50 at the moment. He has done part of our training this week, but hasn't done some of it, and we'll have to wait until the day of the game to decide on him.
"Colin Charvis is in the same boat, and Ian Peel is even less than 50/50. We'll have a look at all of them nearer the game, but we won't take any risks if they're not ready."
The Falcons have currently named Ian Peel, David Wilson, Matt Thompson ,,Luke Gross, Colin Charvis, Epi Taione, James Grindal, Jonny Wilkinson, Mark Wilkinson, Toby Flood, Mathew Tait