Connacht are down to the bare bones at out-half for the next few weeks after AJ MacGinty sustained a shoulder injury during the province's narrow win against Leinster on Saturday evening.
MacGinty, who joined Connacht after his exploits for USA at the World Cup, will be out of action for the next four weeks.
Pat Lam's team were already without the services of both Craig Ronaldson and Jack Carty. Ronaldson suffered an ankle ligament injury during a win against Edinburgh in early March. He is expected remain unavailable for a 'number of weeks'. Connacht hope that Carty will return to training in approximately two weeks.
It leaves Lam with two inexperienced options at 10 as they head into a testing period of fixtures. Shane O'Leary replaced MacGinty after 61 minutes on Saturday. The other option is Conor McKeon. Neither have started games for Connacht in the PRO12.
Next Friday, Connacht travel to Ravenhill to take on Ulster. Two weeks later they face Munster at the Sportsground. The two other remaining games are away to Treviso and at home to Glasgow.
In some good news for Lam, Ultan Dillane will be available for selection against Ulster after recovering from a shoulder injury.
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Picture credit: Ray Ryan / SPORTSFILE
