Ian McKinley is an inspiration to many involved in rugby and many more that have never played, or watched the game.
The young out-half lost sight in one of his eyes after copping a stray boot to the face in a training session with Leinster.
His career looked over but surgical help, protective eye goggles and a shed-load of courage saw him return to the rugby pitch. He now plays with Zebre in the Guinness PRO12 and, last month, returned to play a pro match in Ireland.
Conor Murray was unlucky to cop a kick to the face against England, a fortnight ago, but the Munster scrum-half feels fortunate that he required nothing more than eight stitches.
Murray played underage rugby for Ireland with McKinley and thought of him after the close encounter with Mike Brown’s flailing studs. He told TV3:
“I’ve seen fellas I’ve played with, underage, get serious eye injuries and their rugby careers suffered because of it.
“It is probably a sensitive issue for me to talk about but it is for the powers-that-be to recognise that and make [ruck clearing] safer for the future.”
“Because I’ve had my friend, Ian, go through something nasty like that,” Murray added, “I’m quite sensitive about it. I can see how easy [these injuries] can happen.
“It is within the laws so I’ve nothing against Mike Brown because he was fully in his rights to do that. Whether it was reckless or not, that’s up to others to judge.
“But, for the future and the safety of people’s eyes, it doesn’t take much to do damage there so it probably has to be looked it.”
Murray revealed Brown approached him after the game to apologise and to shake his hand.
Murray, as he said, was lucky. Life and rugby moves on and the scrumhalf is targeting a first Ireland win of 2016, against Italy, on Saturday.
