The IRFU have confirmed that Robbie Henshaw and Conor Murray have both been ruled out of the remainder of the November internationals.
Henshaw withdrew from Ireland’s win over Argentina on Saturday with a hamstring injury while Murray was rumoured to be included for this weekend’s visit of New Zealand but will now play no part in the match as he continues to recover from a neck injury that has sidelined him since the summer tour of Australia.
Elsewhere Peter O’Mahony [shoulder], Kieran Marmion and Bundee Aki [both tweaked ankles] were all looked at by medics after the Argentina victory and Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt was quite upbeat about their recoveries.
“Kieran just rolled his ankle a little bit,” said Schmidt.
“If you watch the game on, he does play on, so we’d be very hopeful that he’ll be fine. He may have to elevate his ankle for the next 24 to 48 hours and get a bit of ice on it. But we’d be relatively confident he’d be okay.
“Again, if you follow on, I think he beat four tackles in his next carry. He would be another stubborn man, in the best sense of the word. He’s very resilient. He was actually walking problem-free – not limping at all – in the changing room just then. Again, you’d be pretty confident that he’d be okay.”
Meanwhile Schmidt added that full-back Rob Kearney and centre Garry Ringrose are also on track to recover in time for the New Zealand game after picking up respective shoulder and hip injuries.
“Yep, they are going really well,” said Joe Schmidt.
“Our prediction is they will train fully on Monday. So, with that prediction, it puts them into the mix [for New Zealand] for sure.
“In the context of some guys that are a little bit doubtful, that is really important to us.”
