Ireland and Leinster captain Caelan Doris will be sidelined for up to six months following shoulder surgery.

The 27-year-old sustained the injury in Leinster’s 37-34 Investec Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton on May 3.

He was last week left out of the British and Irish Lions’ squad for this summer’s tour of Australia by head coach Andy Farrell.

Back-rower Doris had previously been a frontrunner for the Lions captaincy, which was given to England and Saracens lock Maro Itoje.

A short update from Leinster read: “Caelan Doris had a procedure on Friday last week for a shoulder injury which will keep him out of action for between four to six months.”

In addition to the major disappointment of missing what would have been the first Lions tour of his career, Doris is now a doubt for his country’s autumn internationals.

Ireland, who take on Georgia and Portugal in July, face New Zealand in Chicago on November 1 before hosting Japan, Australia and South Africa in Dublin on the following three weekends.

British and Irish Lions 38-player squad for 2025 tour of Australia

Forwards (21): Tadhg Beirne, Ollie Chessum, Jack Conan, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Scott Cummings, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Zander Fagerson, Tadhg Furlong, Ellis Genge, Maro Itoje (c), Ronan Kelleher, Joe McCarthy, Jac Morgan, Henry Pollock, Andrew Porter, James Ryan, Pierre Schoeman, Dan Sheehan, Will Stuart, Josh van der Flier.

Backs (17): Bundee Aki, Elliot Daly, Tommy Freeman, Jamison Gibson-Park, Mack Hansen, Huw Jones, Hugo Keenan, Blair Kinghorn, James Lowe, Alex Mitchell, Garry Ringrose, Finn Russell, Fin Smith, Marcus Smith, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Tomos Williams.

Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and six warm-up matches to be shown exclusively live.