Ireland back-rower Jack Conan has suffered an injury set-back scrum coach Greg Feek has confirmed.
Leinster No 8 Conan, was set to start tomorrow’s crucial Rugby World Cup clash with hosts Japan before head coach Joe Schmidt admitted while naming his team yesterday that Conan had picked up a foot injury.
However, despite the injury originally being downplayed Feek has now come out to warn that they do not know the full extent of the injury yet and will have to wait until probably after tomorrow’s game to give more information.
“At this stage, Jack is just a wait and see. We’re going to get some opinions on that over the next couple of days, and go from there. It’s a little bit of a setback at this stage, but once we get the game out of the way and he gets fully assessed we’ll have some more information on that. So probably after the game I’d say,â€? he said.
The worry now is that the injury could be more serious than originally thought and that Conan could miss a longer period of time than Ireland want.
With Conan out, Schmidt called upon Peter O’Mahony to take his place in the pack despite the flanker suffering a head injury during last weekend’s 27-3 win over Scotland. However, the Munster legend has confirmed that he has passed all the necessary head injury tests and is raring to go against Japan having only featured for 25 minutes against the Scots.
“It’s not something you plan, obviously it’s my second World Cup but the first game of the tournament and it wasn’t ideal to be coming off that early. But, it’s part and parcel of rugby these days. You get through your return to play stuff, the S&C guys and the medical team are well used to it at this stage, it’s bread and butter for them and they were very good. I passed all the protocols, I trained fully on Tuesday and I’m ready to go. I’m feeling fresh, I only got 25 minutes or whatever so I am looking forward to playing,� he said.
Ireland will hope to have Conan back soon, however, their main focus right now is their Pool A clash with Japan tomorrow, where they will be looking to take a massive step towards topping the pool and reaching the quarter-finals.
