Not good.

Ulster director of rugby Less Kiss has admitted that their is no definitive timeline as to when Jared Payne will return to action, as he continues to suffer from headaches in training.

Payne hasn’t played a game yet this season, with his most recent match coming back in June for the British & Irish Lions against the Chiefs in Hamilton. The utility back was forced to withdraw from the matchday squad for the fixture with the Hurricanes just days later, with the problem persisting since.

Kiss says Payne is still suffering when he goes through heavy training loads and will not return until this issue is sorted.

“Jared is just a day-by-day, week-by-week, and once Jared gets to a point where he has no response to hard training… he trains hard and he still has slight bits of responses from that neck and headaches, but he’s coming along, we just have to keep an eye on it. It could be two weeks, it could be four.” Kiss said

Kiss however, told BBC Sport NI that medics have diagnosed that Payne’s ailment is “not concussion-related”.

“It’s with the head and the neck and Jared is getting headaches after hard work,” added Kiss.

“We have to work slowly but surely to get him to a point where he is right again.”