ACT Brumbies lock Mark Chisholm's Super14 season could be over.
Chisholm has a suspected broken right wrist which, if X-rays confirm a fracture, will sideline him for six weeks.
The Brumbies have six remaining competition matches, meaning the only chance of a return for Chisholm would be if the team made the finals.
News of Chisholm's likely season-ending setback came hours before the team was dealt the shocking news of their teammate Shawn Mackay's death in Durban.
The team returned to Canberra from South Africa last night, but Chisholm wasn't with it. The 27-year-old instead stayed in South Africa for tests on his wrist and will fly home later this week.
Chisholm suffered his injury in the 33rd minute of the team's 40-27 win over the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on the weekend.
He was keen to remain on the field but Brumbies medical staff recommended he get off and get his wrist attended to.
Chisholm was in pain on Sunday morning when his teammates left South Africa.
He flew to Durban, where team doctor Warren McDonald and manager Rob McQuade were travelling to to join stricken Brumby Shawn Mackay and his family, for scans.
It was a few hours after their arrival there that Mackay died.
McDonald described Chisholm as ''shattered'' at the expectation his season would be over, believing his worst fears would likely be realised.
''The wrist has swollen more than we had hoped for overnight so he'll have to stay behind because we feel it would be unsafe for him to be flying,'' he said.
''We need to determine the extent of the injury before we let Mark sit on a plane for 13 or 14 hours so the best course of action will be for him to stay here, have some scans in the next 24 hours and then get home.
''The frustrating thing about a broken wrist if indeed it is broken is that while it's not a major injury, it's still a six-week injury so that would be Mark's season over if X-Rays do show a break.''
Assuming his wrist is broken, Saturday's clash against the Cape Town Stormers at Canberra Stadium will be the first Brumbies match Chisholm has missed since round one, 2004.
Last weekend's game against the Cheetahs was his 70th consecutive for the club.
It placed him third on the Most Consecutive Super Rugby Caps list for the Brumbies, behind George Gregan (80 games from 1998-2005) and Bill Young (75 games from 1999-2005).
While Chisholm's was the only serious injury, some of his teammates suffered minor injuries in the Cheetahs game. Flyhalf Christian Lealiifano copped a lacerated nose while reserve hooker Huia Edmonds suffered a cut above his right eye.
Edmonds spent the majority of yesterday's flights from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Sydney and Sydney to Canberra icing the injury.
Both players will be monitored this week to determine their availability for the Stormers clash.
Winger Clyde Rathbone will be required to pass a fitness test should he play against the Cape Town-based team on Saturday.
Rathbone missed the Cheetahs match after he tore a quadricep at the Brumbies' captain's run on Friday.
McDonald said Rathbone was ''progressing well'' and the player himself was confident of being fit to play in four days time.
Captain Stephen Hoiles will miss the Stormers clash, but McDonald believed the injured skipper was on track to make his comeback from a knee injury against the Pretoria Bulls the following week.
The Brumbies have today and tomorrow as training-free days to recover from their flight home from South Africa.
SATURDAY
Super14 round nine: ACT Brumbies v Cape Town Stormers at Canberra Stadium, 5.35pm. TV Time: Live on Fox Sports3. Tickets available through Ticketek.
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