Wallace’s knee injury causing major concern for Munster
Both missed last week’s defeat of the Glasgow Warriors at Musgrave Park and have failed to respond to treatment. While O’Gara is expected to return quickly enough, Munster coach Tony McGahan admitted that Wallace’s long-term knee injury remains a major concern.
“Ronan picked up a dead leg injury against Ulster and it hasn’t responded to treatment as well as he would have hoped,” said McGahan.
“He was unable to train at all today and we thought it more sensible, after what Ian Keatley and Scotty Deasy have been doing, to give them the opportunity to play this week.”
McGahan confirmed Wallace is troubled by the same knee he injured so badly in the pre-World Cup game against England last August.
On the day that another Munster legend, Mick O’Driscoll, confirmed that he would be hanging up his boots at the end of the season, Wallace’s capacity to continue his magnificent career beyond the current season was left hanging in the air. He will be 36 in July.
Wallace is one of five back-row forwards unavailable to Munster this weekend with James Coughlan, Dave O’Callaghan, Niall Ronan and Denis Leamy also on the injured list.
McGahan couldn’t explain why there should be such a high attrition rate in this position beyond pointing out that “it is such a combative area”. “The work rate these guys get through, carries, tackles, the breakdown, what they contribute to the set piece, they possibly find themselves in more difficult situations than other players. It’s frightening to look at the quality of player that’s out because of injury in that position but it does open up opportunity for the next man up. I’m sure young guys like Dave O’Callaghan, Tommy O’Donnell and Paddy Butler are not too concerned, they just want to get game time.”
Apart from the back-row quintet, the injury list also includes Danny Barnes (knee), Dave Foley (shoulder), Ian Nagle (shoulder), Troy Smith (knee), Doug Hewlett (Achilles) and Darragh Hurley (back).
All of this makes Saturday’s visit to Llanelli even more difficult than it usually is.
The better news on the injury front is that skipper Paul O’Connell will be back in the side on Saturday having recovered from a knock on his knee and the prospects for Keith Earls, who also missed the Glasgow encounter, are bright as well.
MUNSTER (squad v Scarlets):
Forwards: M Horan, W du Preez, D Varley, M Sherry, D Fogarty, D Kilcoyne, J Ryan, BJ Botha, S Archer, M O’Driscoll, P O’Connell, D Ryan, D O’Callaghan, B Holland, T O’Donnell, P O’Mahony, P Butler.
Backs: T O’Leary, C Murray, D Williams, I Keatley, S Deasy, S Zebo, L Mafi, K Earls, I Dineen, J Murphy, L O’Dea, D Hurley, F Jones.
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