O’Driscoll career in jeopardy

IT’S not something he wants to contemplate but Brian O’Driscoll admits he would have to consider retirement if next week’s operation to free a trapped nerve in his shoulder does not allow him to return to rugby and play free from pain.

The best-case scenario for the Ireland captain is that he misses the next six months, a time frame that automatically rules him out of the next Six Nations and all but the tail end of Leinster’s Rabodirect PR12 and Heineken Cup campaigns. The absolute worst-case is that he has to call time on a glittering career long before the 2013 summer tour to Australia with the British and Irish Lions which he pinpointed recently as his preferred stage from which to say goodbye to the professional playing ranks.

The player himself talked about the need to be both optimistic and realistic when briefing the media of the news at Leinster’s training base yesterday having played through the injury for eight months now with Leinster and Ireland.