Drico: Shoulder injury ‘ongoing but no great issue’

IRELAND talisman Brian O’Driscoll has allayed fears over his shoulder injury ahead of the Rugby World Cup.

The skipper said he could play this weekend against France if necessary but will instead work on his recovery.

He revealed: “I was carrying it a bit towards the end of last season, but there’s no point in shouting it from the rooftops - you get targeted then.

“It’s been an ongoing thing but no great issue. It is just something that could do with a bit more rehab.

“It’s a case of getting it as strong as it possibly can be before games. If there was a must-needs game to be played last weekend, or this weekend, I could play in them.

“But it’s just a case of being smart and getting it as strong as it can be.”

O’Driscoll said it was unlikely he would play on Saturday against France.

He said: “I don’t know, you’d have to think another week’s rehab would be beneficial. I haven’t officially been ruled out but from my point of view it’d probably be unlikely.

“Hopefully the following week I’ll be fighting fit.”

In general, O’Driscoll said he was in good shape ahead of a testing few weeks with Ireland.

“I’m feeling pretty good, pretty fit and I’ve enjoyed pre-season, which can be a bit of a rarity.

“There’s the hard slog where it becomes a job as opposed to something you just love doing.

“But this year, much as it’s been tough, it’s been really well thought out by the strength and conditioning guys.

“I haven’t done much contact work but I’ve enjoyed it. They’ve had a good balance, we’ve worked hard without being absolutely flogged.”

O’Driscoll said the current Irish set-up was completely different to his first World Cup in 1999.

“It’s a different world, it’s a different sport we’re playing. It’s changed so dramatically from then, when you’re looking at it from this viewpoint you can smile at certain times — in terms of preparation and so on we’ve moved on to a different level. But that had to happen. We were in the infancy of professionalism at that time.

“It’s about experience and learning as you go and what the coaches, the IRFU and everyone progressed (and) we’re in a good place from the professionalism point of view.”

O’Driscoll had a word of warning for other teams, saying the days of giving teams a good run and then fading was “dead and buried”.

He insisted: “The mentality has changed, we’ve had highs and lows, good wins and bad losses, but we feel if we play to our ability we’re a match for anyone in the world.

“That’s probably different to the early years, where you were absolutely delighted if you managed to turn someone over in a 6 Nations game or there was an acceptance of running the top teams close. That’s dead and buried.”