Swinson collided with Brive wing Ben Cohen, injuring his neck
Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Steve Bates has confirmed flanker Tim Swinson's head injury is not as serious as first thought.
Swinson, 21, collided with wing Ben Cohen in Thursday's 36-22 defeat by Brive and Bates admitted his relief on hearing the news from the medical team.
"Tim is up and about, he is alert and thankfully nothing too untoward showed up on the scans," he said.
"The medical team will monitor him closely over the coming days."
Falcons' defeat was only their second by the French side in seven European Challenge Cup meetings over the last four seasons.
But with a stronger opposing outfit on display at the Stadium Municipal on Thursday, including former Premiership record points scorer Andy Goode, Bates was philosophical about the result.
"We didn't get off to a great start which probably clouded the rest of the first-half," he told BBC Radio Newcastle.
"I thought we fought hard and in certain areas our game was up to theirs and in others we didn't clear the breakdowns which slowed the ball down.
"It played into their hands, and Goode was a danger that we talked about before the game.
"Lots of what we did was pretty competitive, but we're just being let down by individual errors and we need to cut those out of our game."
Falcons remain top of their ERC pool group, with seven points from two games.
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