Connacht is currently "scouring the world" looking for a lock to replace Quinn Roux who announced his decision to leave the province after seven years.
Coach Andy Friend says Connacht have the funds "to bring in someone of quality" who can be non Irish qualified to replace the Irish international who played his 106th and last game for the club in January.
The South African-born Irish international, who first moved to Connacht in 2014 on a loan deal from Leinster, has spent several months recovering from shoulder surgery, and will not line out again.
Despite lengthy negotiations, but Friend says Roux leaves with Connacht's "blessing and respect".
"He is at a different stage of his career. He's given an enormous amount to this province. We would love to keep him - of course we would - but at the end of the day people make decisions, and if we threw more money at him, would he stay? I don't know the answer to that, but I can tell you, it was a lengthy process we went through and a decision was made in the end.
"Everyone knows we don't have the budget others do, but an offer was made and Quinn has made a decision - that's just life and that's rugby."
Roux, who has 16 Irish caps, has been a leading figure in Connacht's pack, and Friend says his departure will require a "top quality" replacement.
"We have lost a big bodied man who shifts bodies. Quinn is very good in the line out, maul attack and maul defence, so that is what we are looking for - trying to replace like for like.
"If there was an Irish qualified player who we thought would fill his boots, we would look at it, but when you look around the provinces and where Irish rugby is at, those players are not available, so there's every chance we will get an NIQ player and we just want to get the best we can."
Friend says incoming forwards coach Dewald Senekal is also on the case with contacts in both France and his homeland South Africa."He is very much involved with it, one of the pluses of having a man in France and being South African is that he has a lot of contacts, so it is all hands to the pump."
