ALAN Solomons is standing in as Worcester Warriors’ director of rugby with Gary Gold away for a “period of time”.

Head coach Carl Hogg confirmed the 67-year-old, who arrived on a short-term basis five days ago, would “fill the void” left by Gold while back home in South Africa.

Gold flew to his native country to see his family last week with Hogg taking charge of Warriors’ European Challenge Cup clashes against Brive and Connacht.

But it is now unclear whether Gold will return for Worcester’s Aviva Premiership fixture at Harlequins a week on Saturday.

When Solomons arrived, Warriors announced he would join Gold's backroom staff.

“With Gary being back in South Africa for a period of time Alan has come in and is filling that director of rugby role,” Hogg said.

“He will liaise with Gary on an almost daily basis, so he fills that void when Gary is back home.”

“Basically with Gary being back in South Africa for a period of time Alan has come in and is filling that director of rugby role.”

“He will be making decision in conjunction with Gary.”

Solomons has a wealth of coaching experience having worked at a long list of clubs, including Ulster, Northampton Saints and Southern Kings. He was also assistant coach of South Africa between 1997 and 2000.

The South African helped guide Edinburgh to the European Challenge Cup final in 2015 during his three-year spell as Edinburgh head coach which ended in 2016.

He was also appointed coaching consultant at Bristol in February and remained at the club until the end of the season.

Hogg added: “I have never worked with Alan before, but he has got a huge amount of experience in the game - from the Springboks all the way through the professional game with Ulster and Edinburgh.

“He has worked in a number of different competitions and continent so I will sure he will bring all that experience to bear.”

The search is on at Warriors for a new director of rugby after it was announced Gold would become USA’s new head coach at the end of this campaign.

Warriors were unable to confirm whether Gold would be back in the hot seat ahead of their league game at Quins.

Backs coach Sam Vesty is expected to take over the reins for Worcester’s Anglo-Welsh Cup ties against Sale Sharks and Quins next month.