The game was held up for nine minutes while Lipman received treatment from medics.

And Bath are now waiting for news on his condition after a win that formally ended Wasps' hopes of a successful Premiership title defence.

Bath head coach Steve Meehan said: "The best case scenario is it is a whiplash injury. It is not concussion.

"We always treat these things seriously. It all depends on the nature of the injury.

"When people get an injury like this, it is a concern for each and every person at this club. He has movement in his arms.

"He is a brave player, and brave players get into positions and put their teams first.

"It is not the sort of news you want, and you never want to see players carried off."

South African World Cup winner Butch James steered Bath home with 17 points, while number eight Jonny Faamatuainu scored a second-half try as the west country club climbed into third place ahead of Saturday's clash against new league leaders Harlequins.

Meehan added: "I thought the scrum was absolutely dominant, and we built the victory on that.

"It was a really tough battle. They (Wasps) are a very good side, a very proud club and you are not going to ever get an easy night from them."

In contrast to James' dead-eyed accuracy, Wasps fly-half Danny Cipriani missed four shots at goal, a possible 11 points that would have given his team the victory they desperately needed.

Wasps, champions four times in the last six seasons, can still secure Heineken Cup qualification, but their title chances have now evaporated.

Wasps rugby director Ian McGeechan said: "We were outstanding tonight, having played the second half without the ball. I thought it was absolutely superb, probably a bigger performance than Bath expected.

"We will keep pushing on, and tonight we proved the sort of attitude we will take into every game.

"We have had ups and downs, and the players deserve more, so we will be full on until the end of the season.

"We had a bad start to the season, and that put us on the back foot. We have had to look elsewhere for the reasons why we did not put ourselves in the top at the beginning of the season."