Ireland’s star centre Brian O’Driscoll will miss at least the first two matches of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup warm up matches with a neck/shoulder injury which is restricting his ability to train.
Ireland’s manager, Paul McNaughton says that the British and Irish Lions star will miss this weekend’s match against Scotland and the following match against France but played down the injury saying it is not that serious.
“He’s been doing 80% of the work over the last two weeks,” McNaughton told the Guardian.
“I’m not too concerned about him. He’s got a problem with his shoulder/neck and he’s been getting some traction on it.”
“But, as I said, he’s making progress. He’s doing everything except contact up to this week.”
McNaughton said that there was still a chance for Gordon D’Arcy and Stephen Ferris although they too will miss the Scotland and France matches and are in doubt for the world cup.
Ferris has not played since January when he had a knee operation. D’Arcy’s knee operation in June has gone well and he is running now but needs to prove his fitness in the warm ups.
“It’s a race against time for those two guys but they are making progress,” McNaughton said.
“Gordon D’Arcy in particular made a lot of progress last week.”
Hooker Jerry Flannery is expected to feature this weekend as he has recovered from surgery and the squad is further boosted by the availability of Rob Kearney and Geordan Murphy for this weekend.
Shane Jennings broke his arm in the Magners final but has resumed training.