NEWPORT Gwent Dragons have suffered an injury blow after hooker Elliot Dee underwent shoulder surgery.

The 20-year-old has not featured for the Rodney Parade region since suffering a blow to his left shoulder in the European Rugby Challenge Cup win against Stade Francais at Rodney Parade last month.

He missed the LV= Cup encounters against Exeter and London Welsh as well as Sunday's stunning Guinness Pro12 win against champions Leinster in Dublin and went under the knife on Monday. The promising front row forward is expected to be out for several months.

Dee has been on the fringes of the Wales squad after a series of impressive displays at the heart of the Dragons' front row. Rhys Thomas will now lead the charge for the region with Rhys Buckley and Hugh Gustafson as his back-ups.

The Dragons will look to follow their surprise win against Leinster – the champions' first loss in 21 encounters at the Royal Dublin Society – by turning over Connacht at Rodney Parade on Sunday (kick-off 4pm).

The province from Galway are fresh from a 32-14 thumping at the hands of the Scarlets in Llanelli and have lost their last four league games away from the Sportsground.

Connacht do, however, have a good recent record against the Dragons and last season romped to a 24-8 success and bagged a bonus point thanks to three scores from a driving lineout and another from a scrum.

They also triumphed 16-11 when the sides met on the opening day of the campaign when Dragons director of rugby Lyn Jones was left to lament the absence of TMOs in Pro12 games that are not televised.

Lock Andrew Coombs thought that he had scored a try that would have put them in the lead in the first half only for it to be chalked off for a knock-on, leaving the scores level at 8-8. The Dragons management team saw on their laptops that the ball had in fact been juggled backwards in the build-up.

Jones' gripe was shared by Leinster coach Matt O'Connor after Sunday's encounter in the Irish capital with the Australian claiming his side had been denied two tries.

"I don't think it's acceptable by anyone's standards that you don't have a TMO," he said. "It makes a mockery of the league really.

"There are two decisions, from my end, the Luke Fitzgerald one and the lineout drive that need to be officiated on correctly.

"It doesn't speak favourably on the integrity of the league that you got TMOs for some games and not for others."

Jones may have profited from the decisions on this occasion but will be pleased that another coach is piling the pressure on league bosses to introduce television referrals at all fixtures.