PETER O’MAHONY WILL have a scan on the rib injury he sustained at Kingsholm on Friday night, but the Munster captain is a major doubt for this weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup showdown against Exeter Chiefs.
O’Mahony suffered a popped rib early in the second half of the round five defeat of Gloucester, and Johann van Graan has rated his chances of being fit for Saturday evening as ’50-50, at best’.
O’Mahony’s injury was the only blemish on Munster’s perfect evening in the English Midlands, as the southern province produced a clinical performance to power to a bonus-point win which leaves them top of Pool 2 with a round to go.
Munster, and indeed Joe Schmidt, will anxiously await the results of the scan given the high-stakes encounter against the Chiefs at a sold-out Thomond Park [KO 5.30pm, Virgin Media/BT Sport], not to mention the fact Ireland’s Six Nations defence gets underway in under three weeks.
“He’s gone for a scan this morning,” Van Graan explained this afternoon. “He’s had some treatment over the weekend, with a bang to the ribs and rib cartilage you do have a lot of pain. It’s not something that just goes away.
So we’ll give him every opportunity to recover up to Saturday. Unfortunately, if you’re a forward, it’s not something you can hide, if you go to the breakdown, or steal a ball. I had a chat to him this morning, he’s very open-minded about it.
“He’d love to play in this game, but his body has to work with it first. First and foremost, it’s Pete’s health that’s most important so we’ll make a decision on it later in the week.”
The province reported no other injury concerns arising from their 41-15 win at Kingsholm, although Brian Scott [foot], James Cronin [leg], Jack O’Donoghue [knee], Dave O’Callaghan [foot] and JJ Hanrahan [hip] continue their respective rehab programmes.
Munster stepped up their preparations for the visit of Exeter at their University of Limerick base this morning, with the Premiership side’s bonus-point win over Castres yesterday setting up a pool decider at Thomond in round six.
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