The Irishman, who has scored 18 goals in just five games, has returned to his homeland to get married.
Tech coach Dan Schwarz expects he will be away for a couple of months.
His absence hasn’t hindered Tech, who beat Nomads 3-0 at the weekend to remain top of the Southern League.
Coughlan dominated the scoring charts last season as well with 28 goals, but at times some of his teammates struggled to contribute – their next-highest scorer had just eight.
This has not been an issue this season, with wing Lyle Matthysen the league’s equal-third top scorer with nine goals and Tech have scored eight goals in the two games Coughlan missed this season – the 3-0 win over Nomads and a 5-1 triumph in round one against Dunedin City Royals.
“The pleasing thing for me is we’ve got goals coming from all over the park at the moment, and obviously we’re scoring quite a few, but it’s varied around who’s getting the goals.”
Wing Lyle Matthysen is the league’s equal-second top scorer with nine, and he scored in the win over Nomads.
But he, alongside midfielder Sam Lapslie, defender Tom Schwarz, and assistant coach Dan Terris, will be heading to Ireland to celebrate with Coughlan for the ceremony in mid-July.
Schwarz doesn’t expect his side to struggle in that period.
“We’ve got some great young players in the group and some players that are knocking on the door and asking for more game time.
“So we’re in a great position to hopefully keep on doing what we’ve been doing.”
Tech have so far withstood every challenge, unbeaten at the top of the league, but Schwarz thinks Saturday’s opponents Ferrymead Bays will be tough.
“Every time we play Bays, we struggle. They’ve got a lot of hard-working players, a lot of tough players, and a couple of goal-scorers in the ranks this season.
“We’re expecting it to be one of the toughest games that we’ve had this season, and that’s what we’re preparing for.”
The other games on Saturday see second-place Christchurch United squaring off with Nelson Suburbs while Coastal Spirit will visit winless FC Twenty 11.
Universities, who got their first win of the season 6-1 away at FC Twenty last weekend, host Nomads at English Park while Selwyn travel to play Dunedin City Royals.
