CIAN HEALY IS set for another Heineken Cup weekend on the sidelines as his recovering from an ankle injury, sustained in training, is proving more serious than expected.
The loosehead was a late withdrawal from the Leinster squad that annihilated Northampton Saints at the weekend. His place was taken by Jack McGrath, with the versatile Michael Bent drafted onto the bench.
Leinster skills coach Richie Murphy confirmed that Healy is the province’s biggest doubt ahead of the return tie with Saints this weekend.
He said, “Sean O’Brien came off with a dead leg at the weekend but he should be fine. Dave Kearney will be fine.” Murphy added:
Cian had a scan on his ankle this morning. The results aren’t known yet so we’re waiting to hear. He’s a doubt for the weekend… He picked up a knock in training. [It was] one of these things that just happen — there was nothing to it — but he went over on his ankle. We just have to wait and see how bad it is.”
Healy, who left the Lions tour to Australia with an ankle injury, was spotted at Leinster’s UCD headquarters in a leg brace this morning. “It doesn’t look fantastic,” Murphy admitted. “A lot of that stuff is precautionary — he’s got a brace on it, stuff like that — if you had’ve seen Sean O’Brien after the match on Saturday, you’d never think he’d be walking around the way he is now. Injuries, sometimes they look worse than they are.”
Murphy added, “Jack [McGrath] is obviously doing well, so is Michael Bent. He’s been playing on the loosehead this last number of weeks and has done very, very well. But Cian Healy is a world-class player and there’s always a loss when you lose someone like that.”
O’Brien and Brian O’Driscoll sat out of the early training drills this afternoon but the centre was in good spirits after yet another virtuoso performance at the weekend.
A Leinster injury update revealed O’Brien has a chance of featuring at Lansdowne Road on saturday. “The management are optimistic that the Ireland wing-forward will be available for selection ahead of Friday’s midday team announcement.”
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