England and Leicester fly-half Toby Flood will not be ready in time to face Treviso in Saturday's Heineken Cup clash at Stadio Comunale Monigo.
Flood has been sidelined by a toe injury suffered in England's 16-15 defeat to South Africa and Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill said at the club's pre-match press conference on Wednesday he would be out for a further week.
Flanker Steve Mafi is also out with a knee problem, but both are expected to return for next week's return to Premiership action.
George Ford is set to continue in the pivot role as Leicester look to do the double over the Italians and stay in touch with Pool 2 leaders Toulouse.
Fijian international flank Vereniki Goneva has also been ruled out with a knee injury. Goneva will probably be out for another four weeks.
Good news for Leicester fans is the expected return of Louis Deacon and Anthony Allen are both set to return to the match-day squad.
Comments
ArmchairGeneral says...
Poor Floody. He's been surpassed by two England 10s and one Leicester 10 in just a short spell out.
Posted 20:51 14th December 2012
carpelone says...
Ford looks better than him, actually.
Posted 21:08 12th December 2012
TVaddict says...
Although always sad to see players injured this is at least giving Ford the game time he needs. This is good for Leicester and England in the long term.
Posted 20:16 12th December 2012