MACK HANSEN’S HOPES of getting game-time under his belt to convince Andy Farrell that he’s ready to face South Africa in July have fallen by the wayside as he has been ruled out of Connacht’s final game of the season against Leinster next Friday night.
The 26-year old, who won the last of his 21 Irish caps in the World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand last October, has been out of action since suffering a shoulder injury on New Year’s Day against Munster.
The Canberra native has only featured in four games for Connacht this season and while there were hopes that he might return last month, his recovery from the injury has dragged on from week to week and now he has been ruled out of Friday’s clash at the RDS.
“It’s a week-to-week prospect but he’s not back to the stage where he can be doing his full return to contact work yet, to test out the shoulder,” said Connacht head coach Pete Wilkins.
“I don’t expect him to be available for Leinster either. There’s no panic but it’s frustrating for him and it’s frustrating for us because we’d prefer to have him available.”
Wilkins said it remains to be seen if Hansen makes the cut for the two-match tour to face the World Champions in July as there is no fixed date for the return of the winger.
“The honest answer is I don’t really have a hard timeline for him,” added Wilkins. “It’s been very much open-ended for the last six weeks, which has been frustrating but it’s just where he finds himself at with the injury.
“So there’s nothing to suggest that he wouldn’t make it back for the play-offs or the summer tour, but the experience of the last month or so means that we won’t take anything for granted and we’ll just wait and see.”
The Sharks win over Gloucester in the Challenge Cup on Friday night means Connacht can’t qualify for next season’s Champions Cup as now only the top seven teams in the URC will make it as the Durban side have to be included in the elite competition after their win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Connacht do have an outside chance of making the URC quarter-finals but they would need a bonus point win over Leinster on Friday night and hope that a couple of other results go their way.
“We put ourselves in this position and we haven’t got anyone else to blame. The mentality is positive and it is last-chance saloon,” added Wilkins who will be without scrum-half Matthew Devine bit will have versatile back Shane Jennings and looshead Denis Buckley available for the trip to Dublin.
