Fergus McFadden has been handed a six-week ban for a headbutt on Ulster’s Sean Reidy during last Saturday’s match at the Kingspan Stadium.
The disciplinary committee’s decision leaves the Leinster utility-back out of action until the 25th of August to account for the “meaningful matches” the suspension covers.
That means that not only will McFadden miss out on Leinster’s Champions Cup final next weekend, along with their Pro 14 semi-final and possibly final, but also Ireland’s first to World Cup warm-up games.
With that in mind it has made his task of getting into the Irish squad even harder as he has not featured for the men in green for over a year and now has no time to prove himself.
McFadden can count himself lucky to be in with any chance at all as the committee took mitigating factors into account and reduced the ban from ten weeks to six.
The incident itself took place in the 13th minute of the match and at the time referee George Clancy only awarded a penalty as he could not make a conclusive call from the footage available.
McFadden can only wait now to see if his form from the season so far has earned him a call up to Joe Schmidt’s Ireland team for Japan, however, his chances seem slim all things considered.
Check Out the Incident Below
