The Wallabies are facing a big problem at outside centre for the Rugby Championship with Tevita Kuridrani to miss the next three months due to a pectoral injury.
The 58-Test veteran Kuridrani tore the muscle in the Brumbies' win over the NSW Waratahs last weekend, their final match of the Super Rugby season.
It comes after Wallabies coach Michael Cheika's recent first-choice outside centre, Samu Kerevi, was also sidelined for the duration of Rugby Championship with a bicep injury.
Curtis Rona and the versatile Reece Hodge are the two players most likely to fill the No.13 jersey, although the latter has played at five-eighth for the Melbourne Rebels for much of this year. Other options could be Rebels centres Tom English and Billy Meakes.
Rona has played only three Tests but has been in good form for the Waratahs and has established combinations with Wallabies backline regulars Bernard Foley, Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau.
If Hodge is chosen for the role, it may mean Cheika will be forced to draft in more cover for five-eighth Foley in his wider training squad.
Australia open their Rugby Championship campaign against New Zealand on August 18 in Sydney, the first of three Bledisloe Cup Tests.
