England and Gloucester fly-half Danny Cipriani has been ruled out of action for up to six weeks due to a small tear to his chest muscle, his club manager Johan Ackermann said on Wednesday.
Cirpriani, 31, sustained the injury during Gloucester's 29-17 Champions Cup defeat at the hands of Exeter Chiefs last week.
"He's got a small tear in the muscle in his pectoral, so he's going to be out for anything from four to six weeks," Achermann told BBC radio Gloucestershire.
"Obviously he's been part of every game this season and played a lot of those games 80 minutes, so it is a big challenge now for us to get through this block without him."
The injury could rule Cipriani out of contention to feature for England who start their Six Nations campaign against Ireland in Dublin on Feb. 2.
Despite enjoying a fine start to life with his new club, Cipriani wasn't selected by England head coach Eddie Jones to feature in the Autumn internationals.
Cipriani was also handed a three week ban after being sent off for a dangerous tackle in a Champions Cup defeat to Munster in October.