Henderson set for 3 months on the sidelines. – Huge Rugby News

Ulster and Ireland forward Iain Henderson has been ruled out for at least 10 weeks having undergone surprise surgery on a thumb injury on Monday.

Many Ulster fans were surprised to hear of the news after no visible signs of injury following their bonus point win against Scarlets on Friday evening.

Surgery will mean the 26-year-old will miss the majority of Ireland’s Six Nations campaign, Ulster’s final two Champions Cup Pool 4 games v Leicester & Racing as well as several Pro14 matches.

Henderson who has been on sublime form of late scored 2 tries in Ulster’s win over Scarlets on Friday and is just 1 game short of making 100 appearances for the Irish province.

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The British and Irish Lion is understood to want the injury cleared up before next year’s World Cup.

The 2nd row, who has also operated in the back row for club and country looks set to miss out on the majority of the 6 Nations Championship with the matches against England, Scotland and Italy all falling within the 10 week predicted injury window.

Henderson will hope to be available for the closing fixtures in March against France in Dublin and Wales in Cardiff.

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Ireland aren’t exactly short of 2nd Row options with Leinster pairing of Ryan & Toner the front runners for the starting jerseys come 6 Nations. It could be a huge opportunity for the in form Tadhg Beirne to force his way into the match day squad whilst Quinn Roux & Ultan Dillane will also be hoping to edge their way into Joe Schmidt’s match day squad.

The impact will be felt in a much greater way by Ulster who confirmed the news in their medical update that Henderson had surgery to “repair a torn ligament in his thumb”. In the same update they revealed another 2nd row option Matthew Rea sustained a thumb fracture playing for his club Ballymena on Saturday he also had surgery on Monday and is expected to be sidelined for 8 to 10 weeks.

Ulster are certainly light on 2nd row options with 2 of the original squad, Pete Brown and Jean Deysel being forced to retire over the last couple of months and Alan O’Connor is also on the physio table.