On the day that it was confirmed that he would miss the entire Six Nations, Ireland star Luke Fitzgerald says it was a question of "unlucky" timing.

The versatile Leinster wing has had his fair share of disappointments with injuries over the years but speaking to Off The Ball as he starts the six to eight week recovery recovery from the medial ligament strain, it was clear that he was looking at the positives amid the gloom.

"The timing is just unlucky. It's six to eight weeks, which I kind of got the good news on Friday that it wasn't going to end my season - which I was pretty concerned about given the nature of the injury. It's very disappointing obviously considering that it's a crucial part of the season and coming off the back of playing pretty well for Ireland in my last two competitive games," he said.

While the circumstances leading up to the training ground injury were "fairly innocuous", Fitzgerald says "it was a pretty bold tackling drill and I just got caught awkwardly and I was very annoyed at the time", adding an apology to any supporters who may have heard his pained expletives in the immediate wake of the incident. 

Touching on wider issues in Irish rugby regarding the fears of an exodus and other issues, he said: "There's a sense at the moment that I get that people in Irish rugby are nearly enjoying the panic, in terms of all this talk about exodus and all this kind of stuff. The reason I'm probably calmer about this kind of stuff is because I feel like with a bit of perspective on these things, I don't think that there's ever any reason to panic about these things. Rugby's pretty cyclical."