20 May 2014

Quade Cooper out for 4 months

9:29 am on 20 May 2014

The Wallabies first-five Quade Cooper will be out of action for four months after scans revealed he required surgery on his injured left shoulder.

Cooper fell awkwardly while playing for the Queensland Reds against the Melbourne Rebels at the weekend.

He had the operation on Tuesday and then will use the 16-week recovery period to have arthroscopic surgery to clean up loose cartilage in his hip.

Cooper will miss next month's three-Test series against France, the rest of the Super Rugby competition, the opening two Bledisloe Tests and two Rugby Championship matches.

Meanwhile Queensland lock Ed O'Donoghue has been cleared of the stain of eye gouging after being exonerated at a SANZAR judicial hearing on Monday night.

O'Donoghue was red-carded in their loss to the Melbourne Rebels.