CONOR MURRAY IS “feeling great and ready to go” following his concussion against England at Twickenham earlier this month.
The Munster scrum-half was knocked out in the 15th minute of the clash in London after he collided with a trailing boot from England prop Joe Marler.
Murray was replaced by Eoin Reddan and, after undergoing a head injury assessment, he did not return to the field.
Murray, however, has successfully come through the return-to-play protocols and has been named to start at half-back, alongside Jonathan Sexton, for Ireland’s World Cup opener against Canada on Saturday.
“I think I nicked just his calf. I tackled him from behind and one of his legs clipped me,” said Murray on the incident during the 21-13 defeat.
“It was quite innocuous. I passed all my HIA tests on the sidelines. The replay showed I was still for three or four seconds so they said not to risk it. But I cleared all my return-to-play protocols and I feel great. I’ve trained fully all this week.
“The same thing happened when I got my last concussion against Australia [last November]. It was a replay that showed Quade Cooper; his knee hit my head. I felt fine to continue on but they said it was too much to risk.
“Someone said I had three [concussions] in the last year, but one of those was a bang on the neck. I had a concussion test and there was no concussion in that at all. The doctors have taken all the correct measures. I feel great and ready to go.”
The sight of Murray out cold on the Twickenham turf was worrying, with Joe Schmidt and the Irish management taking no chances with their prized asset.
“Even at the time I had a fair idea I just got an unlucky bang and was pretty much okay straight afterwards,” Murray added.
“It’s the precaution and you have to respect that, we’re all educated in how serious concussion is nowadays and the spotlight that’s put on it, and I have no issue with coming off like that.
“It was the right call. If I had stayed on and got another bang it could have been a lot worse, so these measures are right and I think every player is aware [of that].”
At least they’re getting consistent.
Crap. But consistent.
I got up early to watch that!!
We expect much better from Ireland given the quality of the players but it was a disappointing performance. They did the important thing and won, next week is going to be massive for Ireland, they have to win it otherwise they should pack up and go home, you can’t win a world cup if you can’t beat any of the big 3 southern hemisphere teams. I believe they can win it, if they find the form they showed against England at the 6 Nations but as of yet they haven’t raised to that level since!
Why don’t I believe you Brian?
D’arcy out, BOD to inside centre, Mc Fadden to Outside centre and Trimble to the wing (sorry Earlsy, your outta here as well) Kearney back in full back.
Performance today was dire. No excusing it, major improvement needed.
That was even more painful to watch than the Ireland soccer team and I can’t see where the improvement is going to come from.
‘work on bad aspects in the next week’, what in Gods name have you all been doing in the last 10 weeks!!