Queensland coach Ewen McKenzie fears the Reds' finals-bound Super Rugby campaign will "die in a ditch" if the Australian Rugby Union doesn't release some of their rising under-20s stars.

Queensland will supply 10 of Australia's 26-man squad for next month's world under-20 championships in Italy, including four contracted Reds - back-rowers Liam Gill and Ed Quirk and wingers Dom Shipperley and Kimami Sitauti.

As the quartet have mainly been fringe players in the Reds' rise to second on the competition ladder, they have not reached the threshold of Super games (four starts or eight appearances) that would enable their release.

But McKenzie has them in his plans for the business end of the tournament and stressed their absence for the final four rounds and first playoff week would leave his side vulnerable.

The Reds' depth is already being tested in the outside backs with Peter Hynes and Rod Davies on the long-term injury list following knee operations, while he has no specialist back-up to No.7 Beau Robinson without Gill.

McKenzie said any more injuries to wingers or Robinson would leave Queensland exposed in those areas while the under-20s, who go into camp on May 27 and depart for Italy two days later, are off-limits.

The concerns have seen him look overseas for imports interested in short-term contracts, with former English winger Paul Sackey looming as one possibility after being released by French club Toulon.

"If I can get a Test player from somewhere that wants to play six weeks of rugby I'll get one because I'm not going to die in a ditch in a campaign where we've done a lot of hard work and run out of players," McKenzie said on Wednesday.

"I'm not a miracle worker. I can't just produce players.

"We recruit players on their ability to develop and also on their ability to replace players ahead of them and give you some depth."

In an interesting development, the ARU says David Nucifora and McKenzie, the prime candidates to replace Wallabies coach Robbie Deans if he fails to re-sign this year, will meet next week to thrash out the issue.

The Brumbies have a similar problem with flankers Colby Faingaa and Michael Hooper selected in Nucifora's national squad, but the battling Canberra-based franchise is out of the finals running.

Ironically, Faingaa and Hooper are the only two players to have reached the threshold by the end of April that was agreed to by the five Australian provinces last year.

NSW, who supply seven under-20 players, are also particularly hurt by the loss of teenage winger Tom Kingston during their own injury crisis.

The ARU has stressed the states agreed to the eligibility process but the governing body was prepared to look at release requests on a case-by-case basis, "especially before the team goes away".

McKenzie argued there should be room for a compromise, particularly with the squad containing five outside backs who are in the Reds squad or academy.

"Where's our injury situation at the moment? It's in the back three, so that does cause us a problem," he said.

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