Ireland and Leinster hit with massive Josh van der Flier injury blow

What a real, terrible shame.

Josh van der Flier had already battled back from one injury to do well for Leinster, then Ireland, this season. Now his season is over. It did not look good for the 24-year-old in Paris, on Saturday, as he badly twisted his knee in contact. Following Ireland's 15-13 win over France, Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said the early diagnosis was that he had a sustained medial ligament damage. Van der Flier was sent for a scan upon returning to Dublin and he has now been ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations championship, and the season. The IRFU update reads:

'Josh van der Flier has been ruled out of the remainder of the season with a serious knee ligament injury. 'Dave Kilcoyne has re-joined the squad while Jack O’Donoghue [Munster back-row] and Barry Daly [Leinster winger] will train with the group during the early part of this week. 'Andrew Conway will continue his rehab at Munster this week while James Cronin has returned to Limerick in order to garner some game minutes with Munster in the Guinness PRO14 at the weekend.'

Although Daly and O'Donoghue are training with the squad, they may also be released back to their provinces for this weekend's league action. Italy are up next for Ireland and this is the starting XV we feel they should go with for Saturday's game.