IRELAND HEAD COACH Andy Farrell says centre Robbie Henshaw will be sidelined for at least a couple of weeks after injuring his hamstring at the World Cup.
The Leinster man was ruled out of Ireland’s opener against Romania with the hamstring issue but returned to feature off the bench against Tonga and South Africa.
However, he has now injured his hamstring again and will miss this weekend’s clash with Scotland.
“He pulled up with a hamstring unfortunately at the end of the session on Tuesday and the diagnosis with hamstrings, they want to see how things settle down and it probably takes about five days for that type of thing to happen but it looks like it could be a minimum of a couple of weeks at this stage,” said Ireland boss Andy Farrell today.
Asked if Ireland will consider replacing Henshaw with an injury call-up, Farrell said they will take a few days to consider things.
“We’ll assess that as we go, certainly he’ll be around, rehabbing and we’ll see how the weekend goes with other injuries, etc. and we’ll assess how Robbie’s going along the way also,” said Farrell.
Of course, Ireland need to secure their quarter-final place, with a huge game against Scotland to come on Saturday.
Farrell confirmed two changes to his starting XV with Dan Sheehan and Iain Henderson coming into the team, the latter in place of James Ryan, who drops to the bench.
“He is, he’s fit,” said Farrell of Ryan. “He had a bit of a niggle on a wrist but that’s fine and he trained the house down, actually trained the best I’ve seen him in train in a good amount of years yesterday.
“He actually nearly took Johnny’s head off three or four times so he’s fit and raring to go, there’s no doubt.”
Jack Conan comes onto the Irish bench after recovering from his foot injury, while Stuart McCloskey is set for his World Cup debut after replacing Henshaw at number 23.
“He’s been excellent, as has everyone else that’s not played as much game time as they’d possibly have wished for,” said Farrell of McCloskey.
“His attitude has been top-drawer, the message to those guys has been all along that you’ve got to be ready and your attitude has got to prove that, day in, day out.
“It certainly has as far as everyone’s concerned, Stu is one of those who is ready to slot in and is ready to slot in.”
