Keith Earls looks set to miss rest of Munster's season

INJURY BLOW: Keith Earls of Munster during the United Rugby Championship match between Cell C Sharks and Munster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park Stadium in Durban, South Africa. Photo by Darren Stewart/Sportsfile

Keith Earls looks set to miss the rest of Munster’s season following his latest fitness setback, with Denis Leamy admitting the groin injury the wing sustained in South Africa was “not great”.

The injury is the latest disruption for the 35-year-old Ireland wing who earned his 98th cap in the series-clinching victory over the All Blacks in New Zealand last summer but has been unable to reach his century of Test appearances due to a number of different issues.

Earls suffered a hamstring injury at the Dragons in September and was sidelined for three months, missing Ireland’s Autumn Nations Series. He played through December and early January and was named in Andy Farrell’s Six Nations squad but a calf issue forced him out of camp without a further cap.

The wing made his first appearances since January 1 on Munster’s BKT URC tour to South Africa, but sustained the groin injury in the second of those games at the Sharks and underwent an MRI on the squad’s return to Ireland with the province announcing on Tuesday he was starting rehabilitation with the medical department.

“No, it’s not great,” Munster defence coach Leamy said on Tuesday. “He’s got a Grade 3… which would probably mean that he’d be out for a number of weeks. That would be our understanding.

“It’s hugely frustrating because he’s come back and he was brilliant on tour in South Africa, two really strong showings off the bench as well and then unfortunately he’s done that injury.”

Earls, who turns 36 on October 2, will be out of contract at the end of the World Cup when the IRFU central contract he extended 12 months ago expires and Leamy said his former team-mate remained in Munster’s plans beyond that date but would sit down with the player to determine his future plans.

“Such a pity but look, Keith’s with us until the end of the World Cup so who knows? We’ll have to revisit and have a discussion around that but he’s still very much in our plans.

“I suppose at some stage we’ll have to sit down with Keith and see what he wants to do.” 

Munster are certain to be without Earls this Saturday evening when they travel to Glasgow for a BKT URC quarter-final at the Warriors with head coach Graham Rowntree set to announce his match-day squad on Friday. Leamy said the coaching staff had been due to convene on Tuesday afternoon to assess their selection options with fly-half the position under scrutiny given the availability of a trio of internationals, Ireland’s Jack Crowley and Joey Carbery and Scotland’s Ben Healy.

That Healy, who opted to use his family qualification for Scotland over his native Ireland and will join Edinburgh this summer, has not stopped the Tipperary-born playmaker from keeping Carbery out of the Munster 23, though some pundits believe Rowntree should be selecting the 10s who will still be with the province next season.

Leamy outlined the case for Rowntree, known as Wig, picking the best players available at the moment.

“Wig’s been phenomenally good around his selection policies. The best player, the in-form player… our training is analysed so hard, we’ve got GPS, video analysis, we’re doing everything that we can just to get the data and make the right choices around that.

“It’s the best man for the job, it is, and I think he’s been very consistent and we’ve been consistent around our selection policies.

“It’s absolutely fantastic to have three guys who are international standard and we sit down after lunch now to finalise the team and it’s going to be really difficult but amazing to have the three boys. All three bring quality, all three have the ability to create, to run a game, and some of the form of the lads over the last couple of weeks has been exciting and really positive as well.” 

Healy, who has Scottish grandparents, appears to have gained confidence from having his future decided after a period of speculation as to his contract situation at the start of the season and earned his Test debut for Scotland off the bench against Italy in the final round of the Six Nations.

“He’s been very good off the bench the last couple of days and thing is he’s very much a Munster player,” Leamy said of the 23-year-old. “He’s a Tipperary boy, born and bred, he’s with us until July and he’s all in.

“I know from talking to him on a daily basis, he’s all in, hugely invested and he’s a Munster man, a Munster player and there’s no reason why we wouldn’t select him and some of the things he’s been doing of late have been really, really good.” 

The Munster defence coach also said Carbery, who appears to have lost his starting berth to Crowley and his place in the matchday squad to Healy for the URC games at the Stormers and Sharks, remained in the selection mix.

“Yeah, look, Joey’s been excellent. He contributes to the group, he’s such a smart rugby brain and Joey understands he’s very much in the frame as well.

“There has been no decisions made. This game changes very quickly. I mean, we still have four days to go before kick-off, an awful lot can change in terms of what can happen. And that goes for Jack and for Ben.

“So all guys have to be live, all guys have to do their preparation and we’ll see when the time comes who the best men for the job are on that day.”