Ciarán Frawley's knee surgery will keep him out for up to four months - but Leo Cullen advises the Ireland hopeful not to worry about missing out on his Ireland debut.
Frawley was expected to make his Test debut this month but suffered a twisted knee 11 days ago while playing for Ireland A against the All Blacks XV.
"It looked really innocuous," said Blues boss Cullen. "That’s just the nature of the game - we’re involved in contact sport, that’s the business that we’re in.
"It’s unfortunate but it gives him an opportunity to work on a few other things, maybe.
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"Hopefully we get him back in a reasonable time. We have a very exciting block of games coming up, Ciarán will miss the bulk of that - all of it probably.
"Then you're into the Six Nations and the last block of the season, where the real business happens in provincial and club rugby so hopefully it falls right for us and he’ll be back by then."
It means the versatile backline star, who goes under the knife today, faces a race against time to play any part in the Six Nations and will miss the Champions Cup pool stages in December and January.
Instead, Munster's Jack Crowley stepped in off the bench against Fiji and could move ahead of the Skerries man in Ireland's out-half pecking order.
"He can’t worry about Jack Crowley or whoever else stepping into the team, or someone else at Leinster," said Cullen.
"It’s just control what he can - that’s the same for every player really, otherwise you’d drive yourself demented.
"It’s just get the procedure done and move on to the next thing quite quickly."
Cullen had no further clarity on the extent of Robbie Henshaw's hamstring injury but said that while Harry Byrne and Ronán Kelleher will resume training this week, they will not be involved in Friday's friendly clash with Chile.
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