Robinson suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee in the Hawks opening-night loss to the Kings, with subsequent scans revealing a need for surgery that will rule him out of the remainder of his side's campaign.

The 24-year-old sought multiple opinions in an effort to get back on the floor but accepted advice on Saturday and will undergo surgery on Monday, leaving him with just a single game in Hawks colours to his name.

Read more: Hawks see off game Phoenix in the absence of star import

Hawks general manager Mat Campbell said it's a bitter blow for club and player.

"You talk about finding the perfect import and we found him," Campbell said.

"He has an unbelievable work ethic, the way he's integrated into the group, the level of play, he's come out of the NBA where he's been with five teams.

"To think we had him on our team and he was only going to get better, to then get hurt in the first game is hugely disappointing. We're disappointed from a club point of view but more for him than anyone else, and obviously our group because it was coming together nicely.

"He's done everything possible, even saying 'can I play through it?' to the specialist. It's unfortunate but sadly these things happen in professional sport."

It will leave the Hawks scrambling to fill a key import spot ahead of next week's road trip to Adelaide following Saturday night's clash with the Wildcats in Perth.

"It's a spanner in the works but we're back and looking hard into a replacement that's going to fit the style of Jacob (Jackomas) and integrate into the group without dramas," Campbell said.

"It's a difficult task to find someone in a short amount of time. The thing we really liked about Justin was that he could run a team and he was a good defender so those two things are the key things we're looking at.

"We also knew Justin would get to a level scoring-wise as well so that's important to us. We don't want to throw the whole scoring load on Tyler Harvey and George King.

"We are actively looking and the silver lining is that the NBA's about to start and there's a few guys getting waived that we're currently talking to.

"We don't have a lot of time, we've obviously got Perth [on Saturday] then two games next week, Adelaide on Saturday back into a Monday night against New Zealand.

"Hopefully we'll have someone ready for those two games, if not we've got a little bit more time after that."

Read more: Wollongong's Sam Goodman out to make rival eat his words

While his time in Wollongong has been dramatically cut short, Campbell hasn't ruled out bringing Robinson back to the Snakepit for future campaigns.

"It's very early days but we loved what he brought to the team, he integrated into our club and community really well," Campbell said.

"He's the kind of guy, at 24 now, who'll come back from this injury at the same level so we're definitely open to trying to get him here for next season.

"We'll explore that with his agent and himself as we go through."

Robinson will remain in Wollongong to undergo rehabilitation.

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say.

Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Illawarra Mercury website.

Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.