The 29 year old England international suffered the back injury in training a little over a week ago and the continual spasms are forcing Kirkland to sit on the sidelines.
Leicester boss Sven Goran Eriksson has described the situation as unfortunate and hopes to have Kirkland in his team soon.
He said: "He has gone back to Wigan and we will see when he is fit again, if we are doing what kind of deal we are going to do.
"First of all he has to get fit so he can start training again. We will see when he can play in December, hopefully. If not, it is unfortunate. "He has a back problem, spasms, but we don't know when he can start to train again, not even Wigan or himself know that. So that is the problem. It is not the diagnosis because we know what it is. "We have to see how he feels day to day. I spoke to him on Friday and he feels much better but he is not ready. "We have him until the start of January so we have five games to go. But I don't know, we will see when he can start training. He will need at least one week's training before he can play again."
