Connacht's Gavin Thornbury set for surgery after 'significant' knee injury

Connacht second row Gavin Thornbury is set for an extended period on the sidelines after the province confirmed he will have surgery on his injured knee.

The lock suffered the injury after an innocuous tackle from former teammate Tietie Tuimauga late in the first half of Friday night's Challenge Cup win against Brive in France.

Head coach Pete Wilkins confirmed this afternoon that the 29-year-old will have surgery on the knee, and while he is yet to put a timeline on the recovery, he says the issue is "serious".

"There is a tendon injury in there, which makes it pretty significant," the head coach said.

"He's seeing a surgeon today so after that we will know more then, it will certainly be a number of weeks if not more. We’ll wait and see but it is serious."

The timing of the injury is cruel for Thornbury, who had been involved in Ireland's Autumn Nations Series preparations in November, featuring for Ireland A, before being kept on to train with the full squad.

The province are counting the cost of Friday's win in France, with Paul Boyle set to miss time with a shoulder injury.

The number eight was replaced early in the game after being on the receiving end of a big double-tackle from Tuimauga and Daniel Brennan.

However Wilkins doesn't believe there was any malice in the incident.

"It's bad timing and horrific luck for the two of them. There were a few former Connacht players out there and it was hard to diagnose if there was intent or not. Certainly, there was no ill-feeling between the players and afterwards and now we’ll just gather around the players who got hurt and support them through the rehab.

"For us, we're more concerned about the boys and once we get an update on the seriousness of the injuries and the length of the