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Suspensions to Tate McDermott and Fraser McReight have been compounded by injuries to in-form Reds lock Seru Uru and centre Josh Flook.

In-form lock Seru Uru has joined the Queensland Reds' growing list of casualties as coach Les Kiss avoids turning into a "culdesac of doom" to escape their Super Rugby Pacific slide.

Uru had thumb surgery on Monday and will miss at least four weeks while merging centre Josh Flook (shoulder) is also in doubt for Friday's clash in Brisbane with the Highlanders.

Co-captain Tate McDermott and fellow Wallaby Fraser McReight both copped three-week suspensions for their foul pay in a gutting loss to Moana Pasifika in New Zealand last Friday.

Kiss believes there have been "inconsistencies" in suspensions this season but that the punishments were no surprise and that "it all evens out".

"It wasn't ideal in the game, fairly costly as we saw," Kiss said of McDermott's suspension.

"He's ridden that hard, as he would. It's uncharacteristic but it's been dealt with, we'll move on."

McReight's suspension could yet be reduced by one game, while Kiss said veteran playmaker James O'Connor (hamstring) would not play against the Highlanders.

Pasifika scored in the final moments to pinch a rare win and consign the Reds to a third-straight loss after they had surged to a 3-1 start under the new coach.

At 3-4 they sit sixth and eye a crunch clash with the 10th-placed Highlanders (2-5) at Suncorp Stadium.

"Now there's a different expectation about how we respond," he said.

"The numbers say our error rate at the wrong time of the game was costly.

"We're careful not to go down culdesacs of doom you can't recover from.

"We're just addressing the real critical things in front of us that we're trying to get right."