Pain the Long and short of it

Brian O’Driscoll is something of an authority when it comes to injuries and sport and the Irish centre’s assertion that no player is 100% fit towards the end of the season sprung to mind in Malahide earlier this week.

Soccer may lack the heavy-duty impacts of rugby but to see half of Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad marked absent because of various niggles was to wonder if O’Driscoll’s thesis was transferable across codes.

Take Shane Long. The striker enjoyed a dream start to his West Bromwich Albion career, scoring five times in his first dozen games, but the campaign hit some speed bumps thereafter. First it was a knee injury, then a back problem and, most worryingly, the chest pains and breathing problems.