Injury setbacks add to Van Graan’s woes

The injuries piled up for Munster over the weekend but Johann van Graan is hopeful the return of other key figures can help to offset the losses heading into a crucial Christmas and New Year period.

Munster have to negotiate three inter provincial clashes, two away at Connacht and Ulster either side of a visit from Leinster to Thomond Park, before resuming their bid for Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final qualification at Racing 92 in Paris on January 12.

They lost captain Peter O’Mahony and fellow Ireland internationals Tadhg Beirne and John Ryan to injury, and Andrew Conway to a Head Injury Assessment at Allianz Park, with Beirne and Ryan the most serious concerns.

The flanker left the pitch on a stretcher, holding a gas and air mask and with his lower left leg in a protective cast just 10 minutes into the 15-6 loss, with tighthead prop Ryan hobbing off on 24 minutes.

“I haven’t spoken to (Beirne) but it looks pretty serious,” van Graan said. “Losing John Ryan, which looks also like a pretty serious calf injury and losing Peter (groin) in the warm-up and Andrew Conway to an HIA was tough to take.”

Of O’Mahony, the Munster boss added: “It’s difficult to say. He pulled out, he had started the warm-up pretty well but pulled out with his groin.

"It’s very frustrating to lose your captain in the warm-up, especially for a game like this. Then to lose Tadhg, your other loose forward, it made the lineout very interesting from our side.”

Yet the hope is that a quintet of other key men — most notably fly-half Joey Carbery’s expected return from an ankle injury and prop Dave Kilcoyne from a calf issue — in the next few weeks can provide a welcome boost ahead of the must-win trip to Paris.

“Dave Kilcoyne, Jeremy Loughman, Rhys Marshall, Joey Carbery, Tyler Bleyendaal, you know, pretty big names for us currently unavailable and if you add to that Pete, Tadhg, John Ryan, and Andrew Conway, who was an HIA.

“It would be great to have Joey available (before year’s end). To be fair JJ (Hanrahan) played really well again (on Saturday), unfortunate that the kick went to the left but that’s just the margins in this game of ours.”

Like the other provinces that provided players to Ireland’s World Cup campaign, Munster must do without their dozen representatives over the next three PRO14 derbies.

“They can only play one of the three games and they have to rest most of the time for two weeks consecutively.

"That’s the thing about sending our guys to the World Cup, they’re going to be out for most of these three weeks, and then if you add those injuries...” van Graan explained.

“We’re facing Connacht away and we’re facing Ulster away, and we’re facing Leinster at home, so it is going to be a huge challenge on our squad and our academy.”