"He had a scan done the other week and it reveals that he had some damage to the articular surface," says physio John Green.
"He had it operated on about three years ago at Newcastle, the only time he had anything done to that knee, and he said he felt exactly the same thing.
"So we sent him to his surgeon up there to show him the scans and say to him 'how much worse is this than it was before?'
"It was a little bit worse because basically the surface of the bone has been irritated - it has been scraped a little bit.
"So he is going in for an arthroscopy to tidy up the surface but it is not a cartilage tear - it is a clean up process and the recovery period will be two to three months for that.
"Generally speaking it is eight weeks at least and the fact of his age and that he has been operated on that knee before means that it is unlikely to be on the lesser side of eight weeks."
As for Steve Lomas, entering another phase of his comeback with a reserve game against Leicester on Wednesday evening, John adds:
"There has been some soreness in the joint after training which the surgeon says is acceptable and he just has to put up with that.
"We need to make sure it is okay for Steve to be able to do that so he can do his job."