Connacht Rugby will announce details of next season's coaching ticket imminently, according to Andy Friend.
The Westerners’ director of rugby will depart for his native Australia at the end of the season.
Former defence coach Peter Wilkins has been head coach since the start of this season and also went on the Ireland tour to New Zealand last summer as part of Andy Farrell’s management team.
"Hopefully, there’s be an announcement this week, if not, early next week, it’s imminent," said Friend, whose side play Zebre away in the BTK URC on Saturday.
"I believe there has been a candidate identified and hopefully the club is in a position to announce something in a short space of time."
Connacht sit 10th in the table after a poor start but have bounced back to win their last two league games.
Friend will be able to call on Ireland squad members Caolin Blade and Cian Prendergast in Parma, while he also confirmed that back Byron Ralston (below) will be out until May after undergoing surgery on an ankle injury suffered against Newcastle in the Challenge Cup.
"The high shot off the ball that was missed by everybody," said Friend about the tackle.
"It wasn’t missed by poor auld Byron, he’s copped a pretty serious injury there.
"The bloke played on for about another eight or nine minutes, made a couple of very good tackles in that time with a busted leg. That just shows you his character, his toughness. You don’t want those incidents the game."
On the subject of players potentially losing focus amid the uncertainty around next season’s management team, Friend said: "We’ve been addressing that as a team and as individuals.
"It comes down to individuals really, you’ve got to keep them on track. We are all still currently employed to get this job done. Next year is about next year, yes, some decisions need to be made.
"But we reminded the players and staff last week, at the end of every month we rock up to our bank account and we’re paid. We’ve got a job to do until the end of this season.
"If the players or staff are struggling with that there’s a genuine invitation to come in and have a chat and in my experience, it’s really just sitting down and explaining the process that’s going on and the situation that the club is in around players or coaches.
"That’s the nature of the game that we are in and the more we talk about it the more we normalise it and people understand and get on with the job in hand, which for us this weekend is beating Zebre.
Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen and Finlay Bealham have been retained for Ireland’s mini camp this week, while Connacht can call on David Hawkshaw and Oisín Dowling, who have recovered from ankle and knee issues, respectively.
Sean Masterson (achilles) and Gavin Thornbury (knee) remain on the long-term injury list.
