Liam Williams has revealed his devastation after picking up an injury on his Cardiff debut but has already offered to help the team prepare wherever possible.
The 31-year-old lasted 20 minutes in the win over Munster on Saturday before landing awkwardly after being tackled and injuring his collarbone in the process. He had surgery on the injury yesterday and is now in a race to make an appearance this side of the new year.
It means he is set to miss a significant chunk of Cardiff's season, as well as Wales' autumn internationals. His rehabilitation will also have to go smoothly if he is to make the start of the Six Nations on February 4.
READ MORE: Liam Williams gets crushing news as year wiped out by significant debut injury
After the news was confirmed, Williams said on social media: "Absolutely devastated to pick up an injury on my Cardiff Rugby debut Saturday! Surgery went well last night, on the road to recovery."
Reacting to the news, Cardiff boss Dai Young said: "Liam was really upset after the game because he wanted to have a strong season.
"He's done everything that has been asked of him since coming to Cardiff and I thought he was looking really sharp in the game. I'm really gutted for him. It's a big blow for us and Wales but, more importantly, it's really gutting for Liam.
"He's worked really hard, I thought he was looking really sharp and it's one of those injuries you can't do anything about. Nothing you can say or do can make it any better."
Williams is now coming to terms with the disappointment of facing a number of weeks on the sidelines and being robbed of his chance to make an immediate impact at his new club.
But, rather selflessly, the full-back has already been offering his services to the club and vowed to help his team-mates prepare for their upcoming fixtures in any way he can.
Young added: "He's had his operation yesterday and he'll have a couple of days now for everything to settle down and then he'll come back in.
"He's offered to do anything he can off the field, whether that's analysis or something like that to help. We'll certainly have him involved as much as we can. But sometimes the sport can be ugly.
"The medical staff did a great job and looked after him. There's not a lot I can do other than give him a tap on the back and give him my best wishes. He'll be back at the club within a couple of days when everything settles."
Young was also quick to defend his player, whose availability in club rugby came in for criticism during his second spell at the Scarlets. When his move to Cardiff was confirmed in January, Williams had played four out of a possible 31 matches after rejoining his old club in Llanelli.
The Cardiff boss faced questions along these lines when the signing was announced but insisted injuries like the one he suffered on Saturday are unavoidable.
"Sometimes players do seem to pick up injury after injury in parts of their careers and if you look at the early part of his career he hardly missed a game. Perhaps that's starting to tell," said Young.
"But an injury like he picked up on the weekend, a collision injury... there's nothing you can do. With soft tissue injuries, sometimes you can try to prevent them as much as possible. But certainly a collision injury like he had on the weekend is unavoidable.
"There was a bit of criticism when we signed Liam and Taulupe [Faletau] around how much they're going to actually play for us. But I think that sparked the both of them up and I think they came in wanting to prove a point.
"Injuries happen, that's professional sport. They've played a lot for Wales, at the very top end of the game and you're going to pick up injuries."
Attention will now turn to who will replace Williams in the Blue and Black No.15 shirt. Cardiff have been dealt another blow as Young revealed promising youngster Jacob Beetham - who Young describe as 'a strong contender moving forward' - has suffered a serious knee ligament injury playing for Cardiff RFC also on Saturday. He will be out of action for some time and options are becoming limited.
Matthew Morgan looks set to hold down the fort against Glasgow on Friday night.
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