Jack Crowley injury prompting 'concern' for Munster

McMillan said Tadhg Beirne will not travel to South Africa for the URC quarter-final against the Bulls but he is "getting closer" to being available

Munster out-half Jack Crowley is undergoing testing to find to root problem of his neural leg injury. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Clohessy

Clayton McMillan has admitted Jack Crowley’s ongoing issues with a neural leg injury are becoming a concern after he was forced to plan without the Ireland fly-half for Saturday’s URC quarter-final against Bulls in Pretoria.

Crowley was considered too much of a risk to chance including in the head coach’s travelling squad set to fly to South Africa on Tuesday. Crowley will instead arrive in the South African capital on Wednesday afternoon with JJ Hanrahan set to continue in the number 10 jersey at Loftus Versfeld three days later.

Crowley’s omission was confirmed on Monday in a serious blow to the province ahead of the knockout stages. The 26-year-old had been expected to return for the URC play-offs after missing the last three rounds of the regular season having sustained the neural issue, akin to a dead leg, in the pre-game warm-up against Ulster on April 25.

Ruled out of the following week’s derby away to Connacht, Crowley was named as starting 10 for the final-round clash at home to Lions on May 16, only to again be withdrawn during the pre-match on-pitch preparations.

Speaking on Monday, the head coach told the Irish Examiner a cause has not yet been identified for the injury intermittently affecting his first-choice fly-half.

“Obviously, he’s having to do more testing now to understand what's at the root of the problem,” McMillan said. “I would have believed initially that it was a neural thing, which would not be uncommon in our environment to have something that's going on up here (pointing to his head) that's affecting another part of your body, but the fact that it's reoccurring is a little bit of a concern.

“Look, if you saw him walking around the building, he's smiling, he's walking around, he's probably itching to get out on the rugby field, but it's something that comes on unexpectedly, in a warm-up or something like that.

“He would have wanted to come to South Africa, but we can't risk taking a body that's perhaps going to malfunction again at the last minute.

“I can't tell you anymore. He just needs to get it sorted, and so hopefully if we can find what that is, we can find a solution to it pretty quickly. Like, I’m not trying to be secretive here or cryptic, it's like trying to find out exactly what's going on.” 

Alex Nankivell has returned to training for Munster after missing the URC victory over the Lions. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

McMillan added the call to leave Crowley at home had been discussed since Munster’s last game of the regular season at Thomond Park 11 days ago.

“Probably been discussing that since the Lions game. Like, it happened in two (of the last three) games, where we've had to make a change basically after the warm-up, and when you get to the finals and you don't get any more opportunities, and obviously it's a half a world away, we can't afford to take a body that might malfunction on us.

“So he's going to stay and continue to get the testing, and hopefully we find a solution. We win the game and he's available the next week. That could be as simple as that.” 

A victory on Saturday would set up a semi-final seven days later against the winners of Friday night’s last-eight clash between top seeds Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun, or eighth-ranked Connacht, on home soil at Thomond Park. Yet McMillan could not give a definitive answer on Crowley’s potential availability for that and said sending the fly-half to see a specialist had been a consideration.

“All of those sorts of things have been explored. As I said, 99% of the time, he feels absolutely 100%, so we've just got to get to the bottom of it, and hopefully, it's something that can be fixed pretty quickly. And then if we're good enough to get through to a semi-final, we'll explore that option then.” 

Crowley joins a list of frontline injury absentees for the quarters which also includes captain Tadhg Beirne and fellow locks Edwin Edogbo and Jean Kleyn, tighthead prop Oli Jager, loosehead Michael Milne, centre Tom Farrell and wing Calvin Nash.

Ireland and British & Irish Lions star Beirne has been absent since the win over Ulster, during which he sustained a knee injury and was still in a leg brace as he watched the victory over Lions which secured Munster’s play-off place and Champions Cup rugby for next season. 

McMillan, who has welcomed second row Fineen Wycherley and centre Alex Nankivell back to training after missing the win over Lions last time out, said Beirne could make a potential semi-final.

“Clearly, he's not going to travel with us, but he's getting closer, given how important he is to the national squad, let alone our squad. We won't rush him back and do anything, but again, all of those things will be revisited if we're in another week.”