SO desperate are the resources available to Dai Young now that in the days before Wasps’ trip to Leicester Tigers he was scouring the Championship for players to fill the bench.

His already slimline squad has been ravaged by injury this season and without two coins to rub together he’s had to take extreme measures just to fill the shirts.

Following the 29-11 defeat at Welford Road, he said: “Things are quite desperate at the minute. We only had 24 players to pick 23 from. We’re trying to loan Championship players, but they’ve got their own set ups and competitions, so it’s not easy.”

In the end Wasps secured Mike Powell from London Welsh, but with wingers Richard Haughton and Tom Varndell hobbling off during the match, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Young said: “Nobody could have planned for the amount of injuries we’ve had. Marco [Wentzel] hadn’t trained all week, [Richard] Birkett hadn’t trained all week.

“These players are putting their bodies on the line. They’ve got bumps and bruises but they’re getting out there because it means so much to them.”

This is not the first season Wasps have endured torrid luck with injuries and, oddly, the crisis appears to have deepened in recent years in corrolation with the club’s decline – although maybe the injuries are just felt more keenly now because of the club’s ever-diminishing squad size.

Young said: “We’ve had bad luck, but hopefully we’ll have some good luck between now and the end of the season.”

They didn’t have much of it at Leicester, although not even the most biased Wasps fan wouldn’t say Billy Twelvetrees’ dubious first try swung the game.

Young said: “When things aren't going your way they aren't going your way, but there is no point whinging about that, we caused ourselves problems on occasions. We had one or two opportunities to put a bit of distance between ourselves and Tigers, but either our line out went astray or we gave away a couple of penalties.

“I thought some of our defence was heroic, but against a team like Leicester if you have to defend for sustained periods you're going to creak at some stage and that’s what happened.

“The players gave it their best shot. We weren't good enough, but we gave it our best shot."

One thing is blindingly clear though – Premiership rugby and shoe-string budgets do not go together. Wasps will probably survive this season, but until the club is owned by someone with deeper pockets than Steve Hayes their fans won’t have much to get excited about.

Young said: “We are in a relegation fight with Newcastle, Worcester and probably Bath. But we’ve got a bit of a cushion and if you put two wins togethter and you can shoot up very quickly.”