British and Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell faces an anxious wait to see if a main contender for the captaincy will be fit to travel Down Under.
Ireland captain Caelan Doris requires shoulder surgery, his club Leinster confirmed on Tuesday.
The star forward suffered the injury during Leinster’s loss to Northampton Saints in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup on Sunday.
Doris, 27, is a captaincy front-runner, and led Farrell’s Ireland in the Six Nations. Andy Farrell will name his touring squad for the three-Test series on Friday (AEST).
Leinster issued an update on Doris ahead of their United Rugby Championship clash at home to Zebre Parma.
“Definitely ruled out of the game is captain Caelan Doris who will undergo a procedure this week on a shoulder injury picked up in Saturday’s game against Northampton Saints,” the statement said.
“The full extent of the injury, and implications for the summer, won’t be known until after the procedure.”
Doris scored a try during the surprise loss to Northampton but was forced off around the hour mark.
His club coach Jacques Nienaber said Doris’ Lions hopes would be determined by the surgery.
“Since I have been here I don’t think he has ever come off in a game except for injury. So the moment he came off we thought it would be pretty serious. Then he saw a specialist and he is having a procedure some time this week. That will put more light on the severity of it,” said Nienaber.
“Hopefully they go in and, fingers crossed, there is not too much structural damage. If there is not too much structural damage – it is tough to say, my physio knowledge is a little bit woozy – but I would say that can be anything between 4-8 weeks.
“If there is structural damage it can go more than that, between four and six months.
“So it depends on what they find when they go in and have a look at it.”
Asked if Doris was now touch and go for the Lions tour, Nienaber said: “Yes. That’s why I say fingers crossed. Hopefully for him it is not that bad but you do the assessment and my gut feel when I saw him come off… I had never seen him come off with an injury so he is a hard man, in my opinion.
“When he came off my gut was that this doesn’t look good, but that is purely subjective. They will go in and scope and see what is wrong.”
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