Last Updated: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:49
Wales and Ospreys have been hit by the news scrum-half Mike Phillips faces six months on the sidelines with knee ligament damage.
The 25-year-old suffered the serious injury during the recent EDF Energy Cup win over Saracens and it will subsequently rule him out of the final, the rest of the Heineken Cup and Wales' summer tour to South Africa.
It is a disappointing and premature end to what had been a good season for Phillips, who had jumped above Justin Marshall into the first-team at Ospreys, while keeping Dwayne Peel out of the Wales team as Warren Gatland's side romped to Grand Slam glory in the Six Nations.
"After an operation it'll be six months out but he should recover fully," said Ospreys physio Chris Towers.
"Mike has damaged two ligaments, causing considerable laxity in the knee.
"The injury happened when he received an impact to the outside of his right knee.
"He wanted to stay on and continue playing, which is an indication that Mike is a pretty tough cookie, but it was clear that there was a problem and our worst fears have been confirmed.
"These are relatively common injuries in contact and collision sports and unfortunately in this instance, completely unavoidable.
"The good news is there are plenty of top-flight rugby players and Premiership footballers out there who have suffered similar injuries and are back doing the business as good as ever, and there is no reason to think that Mike should be any different."
Marshall will now come back into the Ospreys side for next week's Saracens rematch in the Heineken quarter-final, while Gatland will probably restore Peel or bring in Gloucester's Gareth Cooper for Wales' trip to South Africa this summer.