Murray Kinsella reports from Twickenham
JOE SCHMIDT SAYS Cian Healy has suffered an ankle sprain but hasn’t broken any bones around the joint, after the loosehead limped off the pitch in a 57-15 hammering by England at Twickenham.
The Leinster man looked to be in some pain after suffering the ankle injury when entering a ruck close to half-time, although he did get back to his feet to limp off.
Jack McGrath played the remainder of the game at loosehead and Ireland will now have to wait and see how serious Healy’s injury is, though he has been cleared of a break after undergoing an x-ray.
A key player for Schmidt, the hope will be that the 31-year-old’s recovery timeframe is short, with just four weeks left until Ireland’s World Cup Pool A opener against Scotland in Yokohama on 22 September.
“Cian sprained his ankle,” said Schmidt post-match at Twickenham. “He has had an x-ray and that’s clear, so we’re hopeful. He walked from the pitch so we’re hopeful that he’ll be ok.”
Meanwhile, scrum-half Conor Murray was replaced at half-time of Ireland’s defeat, having passed a HIA after a first-half collision with England wing Jonny May.
Murray returned to the pitch for the closing minutes of the first-half, before being permanently replaced by Luke McGrath at the interval.
Schmidt said post-match that he hadn’t wanted Murray to return after his HIA, but a “communication error” from Ireland’s management team had seen the Munster man come back onto the pitch.
“With Conor, he passed his HIA,” said Schmidt. “We had a bit of a breakdown in our communications and he wasn’t actually meant to go back out before half-time.
“At half-time, we took him off. We were only planning to give him maybe 40 or 50 minutes and give Luke a decent run.
“It’s one of the things at this time of the year leading into a World Cup – you are trying to mix and match and give different amounts of time to different players to let them put their best foot forward and also to build a little bit of continuity for some of those guys we haven’t had as much time in the team over recent years.”
