O’Driscoll: I won’t be far off 100% Saturday

Brian O’Driscoll is confident he will be fit for Leinster’s Heineken Cup final with Ulster on Saturday despite undergoing a minor surgical procedure on his injured knee last week.

The Irish centre was added to the casualty list after twisting the joint in training last week and yesterday revealed he “had a little trim of the cartilage” the next day.

“You’d want to have a limb falling off not to be able to play in the Heineken Cup final,” said O’Driscoll.

However O’Driscoll’s injury will require careful monitoring and it will be Thursday before he returns to training. But O’Driscoll is no stranger to such tight schedules. His career has been littered with as many knocks as baubles and his current difficulties mirror those endured this time 12 months ago when another knee injury left him in doubt for the European final.

Though he ultimately played against Northampton in Cardiff, he was clearly impeded by the problem but Leinster manager Guy Easterby admitted that, if anything, they were lucky he suffered the latest injury last week rather than this.

O’Driscoll seems to agree. “One thing about having a longish career is that you learn to deal with having knocks going into games. As much as I mightn’t get to train fully until Thursday, I don’t think I’ll be far off 100% come Saturday. A lot of the prep work is done before the week of the final. A lot of stuff is done off the pitch to make sure that you understand your role in all the plays. I can still do that this week and I’ll be out on the pitch watching sessions and jogging through things.

“I wouldn’t envisage that we’ll be pulling out a dozen new plays. I’m sure it’ll be just a variation on other things we’ve done through the course of the season.”

O’Driscoll’s prognosis is all the more welcome given the news regarding Eoin O’Malley who suffered a cruciate ligament injury during the defeat of Glasgow at the RDS. His expected six month lay-off leaves Leinster worryingly light on cover at centre.

For all their strength in depth, Fergus McFadden is now the only man with the experience to step in to the 12 or 13 positions at Twickenham if required and, with Luke Fitzgerald already out, the odds are that McFadden will start on the wing.

Leinster’s various other medical updates were all reassuring. Gordon D’Arcy (eye), Cian Healy (ankle) and Rob Kearney (back) have all responded encouragingly and are available for selection.

Leinster will make the call on their injured players on Thursday evening.