Gloucester flanker Lewis Ludlow will be sidelined for two months after scans revealed he had fractured his wrist in the recent encounter with Wasps.
Ludlow was poised to return this weekend after serving a four-week ban, but now will not feature until 2019.
“He picked up a wrist injury in the Wasps game but never really took note of it,” coach Johan Ackermann said.
“It kept aching and when we trained last week he got a bang on it and it got worse. We scanned it and there was a fracture.”
Meanwhile, hooker Franco Marais (shoulder) and utility back Tom Marshall (hamstring) will both be out for about three months after undergoing surgery for injuries picked up in the European Champions Cup defeat by Munster last month.