Wallabies centre Matt Toomua is unlikely to play for English club Leicester this season, according to coach Matt O'Connor.
Toomua underwent knee surgery after damaging ligaments during a European Champions Cup win in October. There was talk of him possibly being fit to feature in the play-offs should Leicester reach them but O'Connor said a return was improbable.
"The thinking is that we probably won't risk Matty at the back end of the season.
"It is one of those things that you are probably better off, all things considered, to give him another two or three months to get himself right. But he will start the pre-season running and be involved in the friendlies and trials at the end of pre-season."
The last of Toomua's 33 Tests for the Wallabies came in the August Bledisloe Cup capitulation against the All Blacks in Sydney.
Michael Cheika's side next face Fiji, Scotland and Italy in successive weeks in June.
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