IRELAND HEAD COACH Joe Schmidt has admitted we may have seen the last of Paul O’Connell in an Irish shirt, after the captain was stretchered off midway through the victory over France.
O’Connell, Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony all left the field injured for Ireland in the Pool D win, and a worried Schmidt said afterwards that the initial diagnosis does not look good.
Ireland will face Argentina in the World Cup quarter-finals next Sunday after today’s 24-9 victory against France.
“It’s come at a cost to us, some of our leadership, some of our real talismen are in a little bit of doubt for next week and that’s a concern,” said Schmidt.
Referring to O’Connell, Schmidt said that it looks like being an upper hamstring injury, and while he stressed that they will wait on scan results before looking to replacements, he hinted that the 35-year-old’s World Cup, and indeed his Ireland career, could be in doubt.
“It doesn’t look great to be honest, that would be a big blow for us. We’re going to wait and see, we probably won’t be able to get him scanned until tomorrow and we’ll know more by Tuesday. It looks like an upper hamstring.
“He was over the ball and just got hit down and through and as a result he felt that his hamstring came under real pressure and wasn’t able to continue after that. For him not to get back up and get into the defensive line when we’re under pressure, that’s why it doesn’t all go well for next week.”
The Ireland coach said that they are still trying to identify the exact issue with Johnny Sexton who was taken from the field following a big tackle from Louis Picamoles, as well as a possible knee injury to Peter O’Mahony.
“His (Sexton’s) was – I’m not sure at the moment – maybe an abductor, we’re going to have to have a look at what that damage is and maybe get a scan later on.
“It’s the best part of about 200+ caps and it’s a real dent to our leadership group and hopefully Pete’s not too bad, again his might have been a knee twist.”
Pete is not looking too bad, we’re hopeful with Pete. He was walking pretty well in the changing room and hopefully he’s going to be ok. I’m not sure whether it’s the ankle or the knee because I haven’t had the chance to talk to him.
“I’ve spoken briefly to Johnny and he’s already talking about next week, so I’m not sure whether that means he’ll be playing or not. He’s never short of advice.
“It’s probably Paul who worries me the most of those three.”
Ireland are scheduled to provide an injury update tomorrow.
