ST. LOUIS -- Concluding a news briefing about Albert Pujols' injury that killed the mood at Tony La Russa's charity golf event, the St. Louis Cardinals manager let down his guard.

"I'm going to go find a place to cry," La Russa said.

Pujols will be out an estimated six weeks with a fractured left wrist from a first-base collision over the weekend. Baseball will be without a three-time NL MVP and the Cardinals, tied for first in the NL Central, are left to absorb another devastating blow in a season marred by injuries.

"You can't replace a player of his magnitude," general manager John Mozeliak said. "It just seems like we've had to deal with one injury after another.

"We still have to find ways to win games, and that's what we'll do," he said.

The team announced the results of an MRI and CT scan Monday, one day after Pujols was injured during a home game against the Kansas City Royals. The injury is a non-displaced fracture of the left radius bone and his arm is in a splint.

Mozeliak said he hoped to have Pujols back by the beginning of August and the team anticipated no lingering effects from what the general manager described as a small fracture.