JOE SCHMIDT IS hopeful that Sean O’Brien will play a part in the opening half of the Six Nations, having begun to prove his fitness after a nightmarish year of shoulder problems.
O'Brien has hit all his fitness markers and is ready to return. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
The Tullow native may be involved in the Irish Wolfhounds’ clash with the England Saxons on Friday in Musgrave Park, whereafter he would come into contention for the senior Ireland side in the Six Nations clashes against France and England, if not for the opener against Italy.
There is a touch less optimism over Cian Healy’s chances of doing the same, with the loosehead prop still to hit a number of fitness markers following his hamstring injury, although Schmidt did not rule Healy out of contention.
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The suggestion that Ireland would not pitch O’Brien and Healy back in at the deep end after their long-term spells out of the game has been weighed up, and Schmidt did allude to the danger of re-injury.
Sean trained fully yesterday, to be honest, so we’d be hopeful that he would be involved in the first half of the Six Nations,” said Schmidt at today’s tournament launch in London.
“We’d be hopeful that Cian may have an involvement as well.
“Cian looks in great shape, he’s just got to hit a few markers to finish off his full recovery, because the one thing we don’t want to do is to have somebody re-injure themselves and put themselves out for an extended period of time.
“So we’re very much Six Nations-focused, but it is a massive year and what we can’t afford to do is worsen a situation for a player with an injury.”
Meanwhile, there was a positive update on scrum-half Conor Murray, who missed Munster’s recent Champions Cup clashes against Saracens and Sale with a neck injury.
Murray is now looking likely to feature against Italy. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
The 25-year-old picked up a disc problem while scoring a try against Zebre in the Guinness Pro12 on 10 January, leading to concerns he will be unavailable for the Italy game.
“Conor is feeling really good,” said Schmidt. “We’re quietly confident. He’s got just a few further things to tick off, so he will be scanned again towards the end of the week.
On Monday, we’d like to have a clear picture so we can have an uniterrupted preparation for Italy. At the moment, we’d be hopeful that Conor is going to be ok.”
“If you get bruising, bruising causes swelling and swelling causes discomfort. That’s pretty much it… now I don’t have any medical background at all, that’s a layman’s view.
“We’re hopeful that it will dissipate, and it has dissipated over a period of time since it happened and we’ll be guided by the people who are a lot more medically astute than I am.”
Schmidt hopeful that O'Brien will be 'involved in first half' of Six Nations
JOE SCHMIDT IS hopeful that Sean O’Brien will play a part in the opening half of the Six Nations, having begun to prove his fitness after a nightmarish year of shoulder problems.
The Tullow native may be involved in the Irish Wolfhounds’ clash with the England Saxons on Friday in Musgrave Park, whereafter he would come into contention for the senior Ireland side in the Six Nations clashes against France and England, if not for the opener against Italy.
There is a touch less optimism over Cian Healy’s chances of doing the same, with the loosehead prop still to hit a number of fitness markers following his hamstring injury, although Schmidt did not rule Healy out of contention.
The suggestion that Ireland would not pitch O’Brien and Healy back in at the deep end after their long-term spells out of the game has been weighed up, and Schmidt did allude to the danger of re-injury.
“We’d be hopeful that Cian may have an involvement as well.
“Cian looks in great shape, he’s just got to hit a few markers to finish off his full recovery, because the one thing we don’t want to do is to have somebody re-injure themselves and put themselves out for an extended period of time.
“So we’re very much Six Nations-focused, but it is a massive year and what we can’t afford to do is worsen a situation for a player with an injury.”
Meanwhile, there was a positive update on scrum-half Conor Murray, who missed Munster’s recent Champions Cup clashes against Saracens and Sale with a neck injury.
The 25-year-old picked up a disc problem while scoring a try against Zebre in the Guinness Pro12 on 10 January, leading to concerns he will be unavailable for the Italy game.
“Conor is feeling really good,” said Schmidt. “We’re quietly confident. He’s got just a few further things to tick off, so he will be scanned again towards the end of the week.
“If you get bruising, bruising causes swelling and swelling causes discomfort. That’s pretty much it… now I don’t have any medical background at all, that’s a layman’s view.
“We’re hopeful that it will dissipate, and it has dissipated over a period of time since it happened and we’ll be guided by the people who are a lot more medically astute than I am.”
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