IRELAND HAVE BEEN dealt a severe blow with news that Sean O’Brien is likely to miss most, if not all, of the Six Nations.
O’Brien will need surgery on his injured shoulder and Leinster confirmed this afternoon that he is set to face a significant spell on the sidelines.
The flanker dislocated his shoulder during the second half of Saturday’s inter-provincial against Ulster with initial estimates ruling him out for six weeks. The need for surgical repairs to O’Brien’s shoulder have lengthened the timeframe for his return.
Leinster forwards coach Jono Gibbes told TheScore.ie that the loss of the openside is a huge blow for his province and country. He said:
The timeframe for that has moved it outside of that six weeks. It has not actually been set in stone but it’s significant enough, the surgical intervention, so that means six to eight weeks at a minimum.”
Asked if the back-row would miss most, if not all, of the Six Nations, Gibbes responded, “It looks like that. They are not going to put an absolute line in the sand. They are going to see how it goes.”
Leinster are faced with a tricky set of fixtures over the coming weeks, with an interprovincial clash with Connacht on Saturday and Heineken Cup games at home to Ospreys and away to Castres. “Of course with a guy like [O'Brien], it’d be nice to have him in your team but it is just an opportunity for other guys,” said Gibbes. “That is what we’ve tried to get going at Leinster over these last couple of years.
“Injuries happen, somebody else gets to take their place and the same standards are expected of them.” O’Brien has started just five games for Leinster this season. Shane Jennings has deputised for Carlow native in recent outings while Dominic Ryan will also be in contention for the 7 jersey.
Watch Royal Rumble 2003. Around the 8 minute mark Edge and Rey Mysterio give him a double dropkick but Edge goes right across his face and breaks his nose!
The worst one pat. Remember m n m? When the guy got the ladder right in the face. Complete botch. His nose spread across his face
Joey hasn’t been the same since and is effectively retired (training in nxt now). One of the worst injuries I’ve witnessed.
Oh God. Yeh, that one is foul!
I love watching NFL, but the number of former players committing suicide because of the CTE-related dementia is scary and really needs to be addressed.
It’s not just just the older guys suffering symptoms either, linebacker Jovan Belcher who was only 26 and still playing for the KC Chiefs last year, murdered the mother of his child and committed suicide.
How long before they wake up and change the rules?
Where is it claimed that this had to do with cte? The reasoning behind that particular tragedy says he had a row with his gf over whether their daughter was his or not.
I think it’s really admirable what chris is doing but other tragedies shouldn’t be cited to push an agenda…
Belcher was a 3 time All America wrestler as well as a crunching linebacker whose job it is to crash head first repeatedly into 250lb+ blockers and running backs… head trauma much?
It is also well documented by close colleagues and friends that he displayed all the early stage signs of cte, e.g. depression, memory loss, confusion, aggressive behaviour etc…
…but hey if you think shooting his girlfriend 9 times and then himself was a perfectly sane, rational response to a row over the daughter then fair enough.
Like I said I love watching nfl, but it doesn’t take a genius to realise that repeatedly leading with their helmets, as they are taught to do from a young age, causes major problems later in life.
Was the same story with the Chris Benoit murder suicide. Everyone put it down to roid rage or personal issues with his wife but Nowinski worked with Benoits father closely and when they did an autopsy on the brain of Chris Benoit they discovered that due to the number of concussions Chris Benoit suffered he had a brain the equivalent to an elderly person suffering dementia. It was then argued how many dementia sufferers kill their family but I would argue back how many are physically capable of doing so.
After this was high lighted WWE took steps to prevent this. Unprotected chair shots to the head are banned, certain moved such as piledrivers and top rope head butts (incidentally one of Benoits finishers) are banned. On the other hand American Football associations have stuck their head in the sand.
Billy Korgan.
Karl Pilkingtons twin. :)
I agree that the NFL has to do more to
protect players – the constant impact to the brain in the sport is definitely related to depression later in a players life, as seen with linebacker Junior Seau. I also think that the NFL isn’t strict enough in regards to PEDs – so many players nowadays are on HGH and other banned substances – the combination of both brain trauma and dangerous substances does even more damage to the body. No wonder ex players are suing.
Interesting piece, but the link on Twitter was called “We’re putting our kids at too much risk by letting them play certain contact sports. Here’s how we can change that:”
This doesn’t really come close to addressing that…