Geordan Murphy's shoulder injury was the one real downside of Leicester Tigers' battling draw at Bath, according to head coach Richard Cockerill.

The 31-year-old Irish international could be out of the game for several weeks after a clash with Bath winger Joe Maddock saw him leave the field nursing a dislocated shoulder and a cut eye during his side's 20-20 draw at The Rec on Saturday night.

"His shoulder came out and has gone back in again. He is sitting in the changing room and it is a bit sore," said Cockerill.

"It is probably the one real downside of the evening. We don't know at this stage the extent of the injury or how long he is likely to be out for.

"His head is fine, he has just stretched too far when going for the ball."

Tigers will be happy if Murphy is their only injury worry after a hugely physical contest at a sold-out Rec.

Dan Hipkiss's 74th-minute try looked to have won the game for the visitors, before Nicky Little's penalty a couple of minutes from time levelled the scores.

Despite Bath's late three-pointer, Cockerill said he was very pleased with his side's showing.

"I am delighted with the performance and I thought we played really well," he said. "I thought our attitude of going at Bath was good.

"It was a physical encounter and a good spectacle. There were some good bits of skill and some poor bits too, but both sides tried to play.

"The effort from the players was fantastic. We were more positive in our mindset and we wanted to take the game to them.

"We had to rest players like Tom Croft and Louis Deacon because of the agreement with England and the league table is a bit distorted at this stage because it depends who you have played.

"We have had three tough away games, have points from all of them and are in good shape."

Cockerill took a swipe at those people who, he believes, have made some unjust criticism in recent weeks.

It was the same criticism he mentioned in his Leicester Mercury column at the end of last week.

"We are not as negative as some people would like to make out," he said. "Worcester are a great side, London Irish are a great side and Saracens are going to win it – but we will just plod along!"

Bath head coach Steve Meehan said Tigers centre Anthony Allen was lucky not to be given a red card for a tackle on Bath fly-half Nicky Little in the second half.

"The Allen challenge was certainly a yellow card," he said.

Cockerill replied: "Anthony should have gone to the bin. But it wasn't malicious.

"He didn't drive him into the ground. Anthony is not dirty player.