O’Connell may now miss key Saracens clashes

Now it is Munster’s turn to sweat over the fitness of Paul O’Connell.

Ruled out of the remaining two of Ireland’s Guinness Series of autumn internationals having missed last Saturday’s defeat to South Africa due to a back injury, the 2009 British & Irish Lions captain’s province will now be hoping he recovers in time for the resumption of Heineken Cup play when the European club competition returns to the schedule in December.

Head coach Rob Penney has to plan for pivotal games in the qualifying bid for the quarter-finals with back-to-back games against English Premiership powerhouse Saracens on December 8 at Thomond Park and December 16 at Vicarage Road, Watford.

O’Connell left the Ireland camp on Saturday after suffering a recurrence of the bulging disc problem following training last Tuesday. He will receive treatment in Limerick all this week but, Ireland team manager Mick Kearney said yesterday there is no current timeframe in place for the 33-year-old lock’s return to action and he used the phrase “a few weeks” in describing hopes for the injury to settle down.

“There’s been no timeframe put on his return to play at this stage,” Kearney said during an Ireland media briefing at Carton House.

“So it’s a question, I think, of just monitoring it as we go along and see where it ends up. But there’s no fixed date or estimate as to when he actually will return to play.

“It’s out there in the public [domain] that he’s had a couple of [anti-inflammatory] injections. He had a further injection on Friday.

“It will be managed for the next while and the hope is that it can settle down over the next few weeks.

“Certainly the nature of the injury means that it’s a question of wait and see. It certainly isn’t a black and white situation in terms of knowing the exact prognosis for what you do from this moment on.”

With O’Connell joining Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll, Rory Best, Sean O’Brien and Rob Kearney in being ruled out for the entire autumn series, which will see Declan Kidney’s team face Fiji in a non-cap match at Thomond Park this Saturday and then Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on November 24, Mick Kearney also confirmed Stephen Ferris would also miss out.

“Stephen’s progress has been slow. He has significant ankle ligament damage, continues to receive intensive treatment, but at this stage we don’t expect him to be available for the game against Argentina.”

Scrum-half Eoin Reddan, a substitute in the 16-12 defeat by the Springboks is a doubt to face Fiji having suffered a bruised ankle but both Donnacha Ryan and Cian Healy have been cleared to train this week having passed post-match concussion testing.

Also declared fine was starting fly-half Jonny Sexton, despite suffering bangs to both his shoulder and hand during the Boks’ game.

With last Saturday’s starting XV excused training yesterday following that bruising encounter, Kidney called in as cover Munster tighthead Stephen Archer and Ulster quartet Paul Marshall, Craig Gilroy, Tom Court and Roger Wilson, while Leinster lock Devin Toner will join the squad today for training.