He said: "It was great to see the boys win on Friday. I would rather have 32 points in the bag than 32 teeth in my mouth and every player would feel the same.

"It was a bad injury as I snapped the tooth out of the bone plate. My mouth was swollen and I was struggling to talk. But these things happen in rugby and I'm used to getting battered and bruised."

The incident which led to Abbott losing his tooth occurred in the closing stages of the Gloucester match as Warriors looked to protect their lead.

Abbott continued: "Gloucester overthrew their lineout and Nick picked the ball up at quite a hard angle going laterally across the pitch.

"I went to protect the fly-half as he was moving in that direction but then he changed direction towards me.

"I went down to try and make the tackle and he accelerated up. He came up really quickly and the top of his head went straight into my face."

In the heat of the moment Abbott dropped his tooth on the Kingsholm turf before being replaced by Sam Betty.

Despite efforts from stewards and the ESPN production team, who were screening the match live, the missing tooth couldn't be located after the final whistle.

But according to Abbott, his only focus is on returning to fitness in time to face London Irish later this month.

He added: "It didn't really hurt at the time and the swelling has gone down now so I'll have a denture put in over the next few days.

"Then it's just a case of making sure I'm ready to face London Irish and I'll be doing all I can to return to the side."