Anthony Foley says Tommy O’Donnell ‘crestfallen’ after World Cup injury agony
The Irish medical team confirmed yesterday that O’Donnell suffered a hip dislocation in Saturday’s win over Wales and faces a lengthy recovery period.
O’Donnell’s provincial coach Foley said that the focus must now be on the helping the player to recover from the traumatic injury and return to rugby as quickly as possible.
“It’s unfortunate, we all have a vested interest in Tommy but more so for the lad himself”, said Foley ahead of Friday’s pre season friendly against Grenoble at Thomond Park.
“It’s a bad injury to get, especially in your first warm-up game when you are trying to impress to get to a World Cup. Our thoughts are with him and we hope he gets a speedy recovery.
“He has been excellent over the last 12 months or so. He has done everything we have asked of him. He has done everything that Joe Schmidt has asked of him. And he was playing really well in the game against Wales.
“How long before he’s back? No, I have no knowledge of a hip dislocation injury and I will wait for someone slightly better qualified than me to gave an answer on that.
“I spoke to Tommy yesterday. Obviously, he is crestfallen but he also knows he is in a situation that he needs to get out of, work hard and get back into rugby.
“It’s about the person now more than the player so it’s about looking after him and making sure he’s getting proper care and all that.
“In fairness to Eanna Falvey and the IRFU medical staff, they will look after him very well while they have him.”
Many Munster players have been extremely unfortunate with injuries in recent seasons. So it was good to see the likes of Dave Foley, Mike Sherry, Robin Copeland, Gerhard Van den Heever, Dave O’Callaghan and Shane Buckley take a full part in yesterday’s session in Limerick.
For Dave Foley, though, the news of the extent of the injury to his fellow Tipperaryman and close friend came as a particularly hard blow.
“It’s absolutely gutting, this is a really hard one for Tommy to take”, he lamented. “I thought he was playing great stuff against Wales.
“I know what’s ahead of him now as I was out with a wrist injury for a while last season. Probably the worst thing about being a professional rugby player is having to do rehab.
“He’s going to be looking at the lads going to the World Cup and to be honest, I think he would have been a big part of it.
“Tommy and myself went to the same primary school Grange National School, just outside of Clonmel.
“Strangely enough, it would have been gaelic football and hurling and not rugby but somehow we went astray! He went to Clanwilliam and I went to Clonmel and on to UL/Bohemian and Munster”.
Meanwhile Andrew Trimble will have a precautionary scan on the foot injury he sustained against Wales.
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