Peter O’Mahony hoping to be back by the end of September

Peter O’Mahony is hoping that his cruciate ligament injury nightmare can pay dividends down the line by adding up to a year onto the back end of his professional rugby career.

The soon-to-be 27-year-old hasn’t played a game since his knee gave way under him in the most innocuous of circumstances during Ireland’s last Rugby World Cup pool game against France at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium last October.

No time was wasted in recovery. O’Mahony was with Dublin consulting surgeon Ray Moran the next day but the road back has been long and winding and hopes expressed last January that he could take to the field before the season’s end came to naught.