O'Connell and Best ruled out of summer tour

Rory Best and Paul O'Connell have both been ruled out of the Ireland summer tour to New Zealand and Australia due to injury.

Ulster hooker Best had been struggling with an ankle injury he picked up recently, while second row O'Connell has a groin injury. Neither player has recovered sufficiently to be considered available for selection for the upcoming games on the tour.

Uncapped Leinster hooker John Fogarty has been called into the squad to replace Best, while another uncapped player, Ulster second row Ed O'Donoghue, in also named in the tour party to replace O'Connell. The inclusion of Fogarty and O'Donoghue brings the number of uncapped players in the squad of 33 to five.

Ireland will begin the tour with a game against the Barbarians in Thomond Park on Friday June 4th before flying out for a meeting with New Zealand in New Plymouth on June 12th.

The New Zealand Maoris team is the next opposition for Ireland in Rotorua on June 18th as part of the Maoris centenary celebrations. The final game of the tour will see Ireland playing their Rugby World Cup Pool C opponents Australia in Brisbane on June 26th.

Ireland Squad (33):

Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)

Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster)

Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)

Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)

Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)

Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)

Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster)

John Fogarty (De la Salle Palmerston/Leinster)*

John Hayes (Bruff/Munster)

Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)

Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)*

Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster)

Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster)

Shane Jennings (St.Mary's College/Leinster)

Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster)

Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)*

Kevin McLaughlin (St.Mary's College/Leinster)

John Muldoon (Galwegians/Connacht)

Geordan Murphy (Leicester)

Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Ed O'Donoghue (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)*

Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster)

Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)

Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)

Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)

Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary's College/Leinster)

Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)

Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)

Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)*

David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)

Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)

*Denotes uncapped player