Leinster coach Matt O’Connor confirmed this afternoon that Sean O’Brien will miss the entire RBS Six Nations campaign.

The Leinster number seven who suffered a dislocated shoulder in the recent Pro 12 win over Ulster was originally set to come back to action towards the end of February, now that date has been extended and Joe Schmidt will have to plan without him completely.

O’Connor confirmed the news at this afternoon’s press conference ahead of the Heineken Cup trip to Castres on Sunday.

“Sean had surgery last week and what I can say is he’s probably months rather than weeks, it was a little more serious in the sense that they had to do open surgery which adds another month to a return,” O’Connor said.

In other injury news, the Leinster coach wasn’t saying a lot when asked about the fitness of Rhys Ruddock and Aaron Dundon who are carrying knocks, however he said he would give them as much time as possible to show their fitness.

“We have a pretty good bill of health and we have had a good training week so we will make assessments closer to the match,” he said.

Fergus McFadden meanwhile will not find himself in contention for selection this week, even though he has been training.

He’s been out of action since before the November international break with a hand injury and a target had been set for before the start of the Six Nations for his return.

Matt O’Connor admits he may even be around for next weekend’s Heineken Cup clash with Ospreys at the RDS.

“Ferg has trained this week, this week is probably a week too early for him but we feel he should be in contention for selection next week.”

A lot has been written in the media over the past few weeks about a lack of conviction that Leinster seem to have and travelling to a French side who are un-beaten at home in over a year will be a tough place to prove critics wrong.

In their previous encounter at the RDS in October Leinster ran home 19-9 winners and O’Connor says they will be looking to repeat the same type of result in order to keep qualification hopes from their pool alive.

“We have to make sure we are accurate, we were pretty happy with the performance and result in the RDS and we will be looking to replicate that.”

“They are a good side, they have a great record and they are Top 14 Champions so we will have to make sure we bring a top shelf performance.”

Once again this week speculation is mounting over the futures of Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip at the Pro 12 Champions.

Both are being linked with moves to France and Leinster have been trying to rubbish reports for weeks.

However a series of tweets by certain players within the Leinster squad are really making the rumour mill turn full tilt.

Yesterday Fergus McFadden tweeted the following; "Hopefully @SeanOBrien1987 is only going over to Toulon to look at some cattle #RelaxEveryone."

Hopefully @SeanOBrien1987 is only going over to Toulon to look at some cattle#RelaxEveryone — Fergus McFadden (@fergmcfadden) January 8, 2014

Then a picture tweet was sent by Rob Kearney referring to Jamie Heaslip, stating: “You won't get this sort of treatment in Toulon mate.”

The IRFU have insisted that they are doing their best to get both Heaslip and O’Brien and others to stay.

O’Connor wasn’t saying much about any individual case but says these distractions have become part of the game now and the players have to live with it.

“Those distractions are there all the time in the professional environment and it’s something that everyone cracks on with and doesn’t really distract anyone from what the task at hand it,” he said.