French forward Pascal Pape will miss the rest of this year's Six Nations.

The veteran second-row has been handed a 10-week suspension for the incident, during the second half of last Saturday's match at the Aviva Stadium, which left Ireland's Jamie Heaslip with three fractured vertebrae.

The three-man independent disciplinary panel found the 34-year-old guilty of striking Heaslip with his knee and ruled that it was at the top end of the scale of seriousness, which has resulted in a lengthy ban.

Heaslip is facing at least a month out of action as a result of the injury and remains a doubt for the rest of Ireland's Six Nations campaign.

Pape apologised to Heaslip via his Twitter account on Monday night, with the Ireland man accepting it.