No speedy return for injured Reds

WHILE Tony McGahan had the luxury of naming an unchanged Munster squad for this Saturday’s Heineken Cup tie against Castres in Toulouse, the head coach downplayed hopes of a quicker than expected recovery for his long-term injured.

The sight of David Wallace, Keith Earls and Jerry Flannery all taking part in a Munster training session on Tuesday had raised hopes the injured trio may be back in action ahead of schedule but McGahan, who yesterday named a 30-man squad for the pool game against the French side, said there had been no shortening in the recovery timetables of Wallace (knee), Earls (knee), Flannery (back/calf), or indeed Felix Jones (ankle).

“Nothing’s really changed in that regard,” McGahan said. “David’s still around the end of March date for when he’s coming back. Felix Jones is middle or end of January and Jerry Flannery is, at this stage, indefinite. We just don’t have a clear picture of where that’s at unfortunately. We’d love to say this is the return date but with the nature of the injury and all the other circumstances in and around it, we don’t have a clear picture of when that could be.”

Hooker Flannery, whose World Cup was cut short after just one appearance as a substitute in Ireland’s opening game against the USA on September 11, had visited specialist doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wolfhart in Germany at the end of last month and McGahan said: “That was for treatment and another diagnosis.

“So that’s been done, he’s had treatment over there and there’s a process in place. He needs to hit some markers before he can move forward but they’re unclear at this point in time.”

Of Wallace’s increased participation following the knee injury sustained in August against England in a World Cup warm-up game, McGahan said: “It is great to have David, he is certainly not anywhere near a field session but doing some rehab stuff on the sideline, being able to be in meetings and being around the place is terrific.

“Anyone with his experience, both at international and provincial, especially at Heineken Cup time it is terrific to pass on his experience to the back row we have playing at this stage because they haven’t collected a lot of caps between them, so someone like David to participate and engage in talk is certainly important.”

Earls’s knee ligament damage suffered in the first minute of Munster’s game against Leinster two weeks ago is a more short-term issue and McGahan said he expected the winger back in harness in the week of the third Heineken Cup round game, which is away to Scarlets in Llanelli on December 11.

“Nothing’s really changed there, he’s on target and hopefully back training at ERC three and we’ll make a decision then. So ERC three is his date to come back and we’ll give it all our consideration when it comes around.”

Of this weekend’s squad, to which McGahan added prop John Ryan from last week’s group named for the Northampton Saints game, the head coach said Marcus Horan was back in contention for selection. Ryan had been a late call-up onto the replacements’ bench last weekend following an ankle injury to Marcus Horan, but both players were named yesterday.

“At this stage, everyone’s fit. We had a few knocks and bangs from Saturday night and some guys didn’t participate, some guys did the morning session but trained in the afternoon, some guys had the whole day off.

“So we’ll just have to wait and see, we’ll train again tomorrow [Thursday], late afternoon, and we’ll have a clear decision on what to make of things.

“Marcus is back in, his ankle was sore last week and he had to pull out but he’s back in training mode so he’s available for selection.”

Munster squad (v Castres, Heineken Cup): Forwards: M Horan, J Ryan, W du Preez, BJ Botha, J Hayes, S Archer, D Varley, D Fogarty, D Ryan, P O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, B Holland, P O’Mahony, N Ronan, J Coughlan, D Leamy.

Backs: C Murray, T O’Leary, P Stringer, D Williams, R O’Gara, I Keatley, S Deasy, J Murphy, D Howlett, D Barnes, W Chambers, L Mafi, D Hurley.