Stingers down Lions top guns

IT COULD have been a metaphor for the last week of this tour as Clive Woodward entered his latest press conference in the company of two doctors — but the men in white coats were there to deliver the latest injury updates on a battered British & Irish Lions squad.

The Lions have been forced to rule out both Gavin Henson and Jonny Wilkinson from Saturday’s third and final Test against New Zealand at Eden Park, the latter’s injury paving the way for Ronan O’Gara to make his Test debut four years after first pulling on the red shirt.

Head coach Woodward delayed naming his team by 24 hours in order to assess the fitness of his injury-hit squad in the wake of bruising encounters against both the All Blacks last Saturday in Wellington and Auckland on Tuesday night.

He was also awaiting the verdict of the judicial hearing into Graham Rowntree’s alleged striking of an Auckland player in the first minute of Tuesday’s match at Eden Park.

Rowntree was cleared of the charge, but Auckland centre Sam Tuitupou was banned for six weeks after a separate citing for stamping on Gordon D’Arcy.

The England prop, who had never been cited before in a lengthy career is now available for Saturday, but the medical update given yesterday in Auckland’s Maritime Museum suggested the Lions were all at sea in the back division.

Such was the gravity of the problem that Woodward went into the press conference flanked on each side by a tour doctor, James Robson of Scotland and Ireland’s team medic Gary O’Driscoll.

Wilkinson and Henson were both ruled out by the injury of the moment, ‘the stinger’, a neurological problem akin to a ‘funny bone’ where an impact on a nerve leaves the arm or shoulder numb.

Wilkinson suffered two stingers on Saturday but Dr Robson said the English fly-half had been unlucky and the problem was unconnected with the major shoulder and neck injuries which had kept the player out of action for 18 months following the 2003 World Cup.

He added that if the tour had been longer, Wilkinson would have been made available for selection in the following week, although Henson’s recovery would take several weeks.

Charlie Hodgson (concussion), Ben Kay (eye), Andy Sheridan (ankle) and Ollie Smith (ribs) will also play no further part in the tour.

“If you questioned all the tour members, it is amazing how many people have had a stinger.

“It is an irritation, a bruising to some of the nerves coming out of the neck and going into the shoulder,” Dr Robson said.

“That can take anything between a few moments or many months and Jonny has had well-documented problems. The other day he got two bangs on the same piece of nerve.

“The first one cleared very quickly in a few seconds, and the second one was of sufficient concern to actually bring him out of that danger area.

“Since then he has made fantastic progress and if this tour had two weeks to run, I would have no doubt he would be available for selection next week.”

“Gavin Henson has a similar problem but he will not recover in the next week or so. He may be several weeks, and his is taking longer to recover, although he is back in the gym already and one would expect him to make a full recovery.”

Of Hodgson’s injury, Dr O’Driscoll said: “Charlie was hit from behind by a very hard tackle and suffered a concussion. He still has some mild symptoms of concussion and within the context of the tour we had no option but to advise him not take any further part.”

The problems for Wilkinson and Hodgson mean Ireland fly-half O’Gara will definitely feature in the Test 22 alongside fellow fit outside-half Stephen Jones of Wales.

Woodward also announced a further list of casualties he hoped would become available for selection, including captain Gareth Thomas, who is suffering from a viral infection and Shane Horgan who is resting a tight hamstring and nursing a wound to his forehead which required three stitches after the Auckland victory.

Also expected to recover are Neil Back (neck) and Will Greenwood (shoulder) but the biggest concern for the medical team was prop Gethin Jenkins, who twisted both his ankles last Saturday.

The number of infirm was enough to make the Lions cancel training yesterday and give their player’s an extra day’s recuperation but Woodward said that would mean a full-on return to training on Thursday morning, ahead of the team announcement.

Woodward insisted the selection process would not be a problem.

“We’ve actually got more injuries than we thought we would get and lost some very high profile players who I thought would be in the Test team, Dallaglio, O’Driscoll, O’Kelly, these fellas.

“But it’s no headache picking this team.

"The forward pack did pretty well last weekend and we’ve got to change (numbers) 10 and 12 because Wilkinson and Henson are out but we’re going to make sure we’ve got fit players and I think we will have and also look at the combinations that have played together throughout the trip.

“Come tomorrow we’ll have the full 22 going flat out in training to win the Test match, which is still very important. We’re looking forward to it and we’ve improved every game.

“No-one is disappointed more than my myself about the outcome of the first two Test matches but the whole idea of putting this (medical) team together was to make sure we went into every single game competitively.

"That was our only chance and if we had not been fresh, rested and competitive as a team then we would have lost to Auckland. That’s what coming to New Zealand is like, it’s the hardest tour by a long, long way and every single game is full on.”