LAST UPDATE | 14 Nov 2023
ULSTER HAVE CONFIRMED that back Ethan McIlroy suffered a facial fracture and a concussion during the northern province’s URC victory over champions Munster at Ravenhill on Friday night.
McIlroy made a dart for the line in the 14th minute of Ulster’s 21-14 win and sustained a serious-looking head injury as Munster hooker Diarmuid Barron and McIlroy’s opposite number, Shane Daly, scrambled to prevent him from crossing the whitewash.
It was the collision between McIlroy and Daly in particular which appeared to cause the damage to the Ulster 15. With McIlroy carrying low towards the try-line from close range, Daly sprinted in from the left edge and attempted to stop him, his lead arm inadvertently making contact with McIlroy’s bowed head. There may have been additional contact between McIlroy’s head and Daly’s left knee/thigh area as both men crashed to the floor, while McIlroy also landed face-first onto the Ravenhill surface.
Munster hooker Barron, who had almost simultaneously tackled McIlroy from a southwest position, immediately called for the medics upon seeing the Ulsterman’s condition.
Daly was yellow-carded, with referee Frank Murphy believing there was sufficient mitigation not to send him off in that McIlroy’s body position in the carry had been so low, and in that Diarmuid Barron’s legal tackle of McIlroy from the opposite side had materially affected the contact between McIlroy and Daly at the last second.
McIlroy was treated at the Royal Victoria Hospital on Friday evening and discharged later that night.
He’s likely to miss well over a month with the facial injury, while Ulster will first monitor the 23-year-old’s concussion as he begins his recovery.
Elsewhere, Leinster have announced that Tommy O’Brien will miss “a number of weeks” with an ankle injury. He sustained the setback in Sunday’s 33-10 win against the Dragons.
While O’Brien is unavailable for selection, Michael Milne and Cormac Foley require further assessment ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Scarlets at the RDS. Milne will step up his training programme this week as he continues his return from a shoulder injury, while Foley is carrying one of his own from the weekend.
Leo Cullen confirmed that all Leinster players involved in the Rugby World Cup have returned to the set-up, while there were no further updates available on John McKee (hamstring), Luke McGrath (knee), Cian Healy (shoulder), Ed Byrne (hamstring) and Alex Soroka (foot).
