Horan injury mystery deepens as Kidney awaits investigation

By Charlie Mulqueen

Thursday, November 05, 2009

THE mystery surrounding the health of Munster and Ireland prop Marcus Horan deepened after yesterday’s team press conference in Limerick.

The 66-times capped loose head prop was forced to leave the field during his province’s Heineken Cup match against Benetton Treviso a fortnight ago and has undergone a series of medical tests to discover the source of the problem. He hasn’t joined the rest of the extended national squad at UL this week and Irish coach Declan Kidney was unable to shed any light on the situation yesterday.

Kidney explained: "We cannot give you any information because there are ongoing investigations. I’ve been talking to Marcus and as soon as we know more, we will let you know.

"The latest we have is that we’ll have something concrete on Friday. He was feeling dizzy and a bit fatigued and they’re investigating that. He’s in good form, giving out as much as ever!"

But Kidney hasn’t excluded Horan from his plans for the opening autumn international against the Wallabies at Croke Park on Sunday week.

"In this job, you can’t afford to rule guys out until you’re told that they’re definitely out but obviously it puts him on the back foot for Australia. He would need to be active next week to be involved."

Kidney was "glad we’re not playing this week" when revealing just 28 of the 39-strong squad trained yesterday. Tomas O’Leary, Paddy Wallace, Denis Leamy, Rob Kearney, Gordon D’Arcy, Brian O’Driscoll, Tony Buckley, Jerry Flannery, David Wallace and Leo Cullen are minor injury concerns.

Despite Paul O’Connell’s captaincy of the Lions during the summer, it came as little surprise when Kidney announced Brian O’Driscoll would again skipper the team for the matches against Australia, Fiji and South Africa.

"The team is blessed with the number of leaders we have," said Kidney. "Since we last spoke, Paul captained the Lions and Munster very well. Donncha (O’Callaghan) and Ronan (O’Gara) have captained the Lions.

"Brian brings a lot of experience to the job and he’s motoring well at the moment. For continuity and a whole host of reasons, it just felt appropriate to stay with him.

"He’s as excited about it as ever and that’s very important. Not only do you have to play but you have to give a bit of yourself to the other members of the team. If anything his enthusiasm for the job is growing and that’s a great thing because it feeds into the team."

The opening game of the November series against Australia assumes added significance because the Wallabies are in the same pool as Ireland in the 2011 World Cup.

Kidney however is taking it one step at a time. He explained: "Our job is to put in the best performance we can against Australia. That’s the priority. Have we been working on plans for the World Cup? We certainly have. But it’s time to park that now because you want to build momentum and confidence."

The team to play Tonga in an A international at Ravenhill on November 13 will be announced tomorrow afternoon when the senior squad will be reduced to 30 before the final 22 are finalised on Wednesday.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, November 05, 2009