Bath Rugby will not be rushing Sam Burgess into action after confirming the rugby league superstar may not report to the club for another four weeks.
Burgess underwent surgery on Tuesday after suffering a fractured eye socket and broken cheekbone in South Sydney Rabbitohs' NRL Grand Final triumph on Sunday.
The match was Burgess' last in Australia before he completes a cross-code switch to Bath in the Aviva Premiership.
The 25-year-old was due to join Bath on October 15 but Bath head coach Mike Ford revealed he cannot travel to England immediately following his operation and they may not see Burgess until next month.
Ford said: "I've spoken to Sam a couple of times and he's in good spirits.
"He's achieved what he wanted to achieve and it's been five years coming. He's made a lot of sacrifices over those five years and for him to do what he did at the weekend was great.
"The unfortunate thing for us is that he's picked up this injury.
"He's had an operation today and then the surgeon will let him know if it's been a success or not. Then they'll decide from there how long he'll be out injured for.
"He can't fly straight away. It'll be between two and four weeks after he's had the op depending on what the surgeon says.
"We're pretty comfortable with everything, whether it's two weeks, three weeks or four weeks.
"You always try to look at it positively and now he can spend a bit more time with his family and get the Grand Final win out of the way, because no doubt they'll still be in party mode next week."
Bath had originally hoped Burgess would make his debut in November's LV= Cup matches but that is almost certain to be pushed back.
Ford says even a fully-fit Burgess would never have been thrown straight into rugby union and that there is now no timescale on when he is likely to appear.
"We'll certainly need to get him over and look how he is in his body and mind because it's a brutal competition, the NRL," said Ford.
"The blessing in disguise from this is that he's got an enforced rest, which is great for us.
"He thinks he could have played straight away but we would have rested him anyway. That philosophy will stay the same. He'll play when he's ready to play but we don't know when that will be.
"There's a tactically side of the game as well and we were always going to rest him and make sure he's physically and mentally fresh.
"We wouldn't have stuck him with a playbook straight away and said off you go kid."
