Leo Cullen has confirmed that Johnny Sexton will not make a return for the Champions Cup final on May 20.
Leinster beat Toulouse 41-22 at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday afternoon to reach the European decider for the second year in succession and for the third time since they last lifted the trophy in Bilbao in 2018.
Out-half Ross Byrne steered the ship home for the province and was 100% in terms of his kicking stats, converting five tries and also scoring two penalties.
READ MORE: Leinster advance to Champions Cup final with victory over Toulouse
With holders La Rochelle or 2020 champions Exeter Chiefs to come in the final showdown at Lansdowne Road in three weeks time, having Sexton back from injury would have been a massive boost.
Sexton, 37, suffered a groin injury in Ireland's Grand Slam clinching victory against England on March 18 and had a procedure at the end of last month.
After today's victory, head coach Cullen said it would take a miracle for the club skipper to make it back in time.
"No, I'd be shocked at this point in time," said Cullen, who went on to praise his side for their five-try victory and then look forward to next Saturday's URC quarter-final against the Sharks.
"I suppose it's the effort, that's the big thing. There were plenty of moments where the guys were clinical in terms of taking opportunities, which was pleasing as well.
"But it's a semi-final, we were at this stage last year and you put in a big performance and then you're just trying to manage things to a final. The season's structure is different this year, so we're into a quarter-final next week. We've got to get our heads around that pretty quickly.
"The most pleasing thing is to be in a final because that's what it's all about. For us, it's, 'Right, the job is done, that part of the job is done and let's turn our attention to what the next challenge is going to be'.
"We'll watch the game between La Rochelle and Exeter with great interest tomorrow and see what comes out of that.
"In the meantime, coaches already towards the tail end of this week, you're turning attention towards the Sharks and now the players come in on Monday morning, review the game, and take the learnings from it, things we can do better and there are some excellent parts of that performance.
"We just look forward to the next challenge. We know we've got a quarter-final but we've never really had a sequence of games quite like this. At the very start of the season, you're looking at the prospect of being here.
"Even the fact that we're playing a quarter-final here as well because Bruce Springsteen is playing in the RDS, which is great in many ways because it makes it tidy.
"We're back here next week, you've got that type of battle ritual in many regards. Back to the question, what's the most pleasing thing? To win the semi-final and be in a final. But it's trying to manage the next little period that will be the key bit."
Meanwhile, Toulouse boss Ugo Mola lamented his side's lack of discipline with the sin-binning of Thomas Ramos and Rodrigue Neti in either half resulting in the loss of four tries to Leinster.
“It was 0-28 when it was 14 men against 15 and 22-13 when it was 15 against 15," said Mola. "If we had played 15 against 15 for the whole match it might have been different.
“Leinster put us in the corner. Ramos’s error was severe, Neti’s was serious and we paid the price for that."
Toulouse believe they had a case that ref Wayne Barnes could have yellow carded Andrew Porter in the 37th minute for his tackle on winger Juan Cruz Mallia.
“We could have played 15 against 14 but the foul was not mentioned," he said. "Wayne Barnes is a high-level referee but, at that time, there was a wait for a potential try and this foul was not whistled.
“We could have been in a position to get back into it. It could have been a turning point. We were just 13 points behind then. There are a lot of things which didn’t go in our favour. We have to be more lucid to resist against this type of team.
"It’s a bitter pill to swallow, we were not disciplined at all today. When we had the ball we could have hurt them but they scored points very easily and when you score points very easily it is different.
“We were trying hard to score some tries but it is not the same squad. We have grown but we have not fully learned the lessons from last year. We had two yellow cards and we paid the price. We waged a battle but we were not accurate or precise enough in the defining moments.
“We gave away a point [not getting bonus point in Sale], we had five or six opportunities that we didn’t convert. Not getting that bonus point undermined us, we knew we would be on the road to Leinster in Dublin. This is our story.
“We paid a high price because there was a lack of discipline. The virtues, the values of Leinster haven’t changed. They are certainly one of the best – if not the best – in Europe but they will play against another team against which they lost last year.”
READ NEXT:
Shane Dowling column: Job Liam Cahill and Mikey Bevans have done in Tipperary cannot be overstated
€500,000 horse going to Gordon Elliott after record breaking sale at Punchestown
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
