Frankie Sheahan's World Cup dreams were resurrected this afternoon following the European Rugby Commission's (ERC) decision to reduce his two-year ban for a drugs offence to three months on appeal and a €5,000 fine.
Sheahan received the ban in July after testing positive for the banned stimulant salbutamol after the European Cup semi-final against Toulouse in Stade des Sept-Deniers on April 26th.
The Munster and Ireland hooker, an asthma sufferer, agreed he had not complied with the procedures for declaring his need to make therapeutic use of salbutamol but insisted the dehydration in the extreme heat of Toulouse was responsible for the high levels of salbutamol in his sample.
The three-man ERC Appeal Committee accepted new evidence presented by Sheahan and his legal team and took the decision to reduce the suspension to three months. As the initial date of the ban was May 30th, when Sheahan was withdrawn from the Irish squad touring Australia, the suspension elapsed two days ago.
In a statement released this afternoon the ERC announced that it accepted the argument that the high concentration of salbutamol was quite likely a result of dehydration.
The statement read: "The new evidence put forward by Mr Sheahan on appeal satisfied the Appeal Tribunal that Mr Sheahan had limited himself to an appropriate therapeutic dose.
However, the ERC said that given Sheahan incorrectly filled in the form that states he is an asthmatic and a regular user of an inhaler, which contains the banned drug salbutamol, it must still uphold the finding of a doping offence.
"The Appeal Tribunal found that Mr Sheahan's failure is not just an administrative oversight. It is a serious matter: the rules relating to completion of forms about drugs and other medication requires strict compliance to support the campaign to keep drug abuse out of sport," the statement read.
"Both the player and the management of Munster were grossly negligent in the way in which the Player Consent Form was completed and the penalty must be severe to deter such a cavalier approach in the future," it added.
Eddie O'Sullivan is due to announce his 30-man squad for next month's World Cup on Sunday and the Ireland coach has already gone on record saying he intends to include three hookers in the panel.
Sheahan, who has 13 caps and could be in line for inclusion in the Munster squad to play Leinster on Friday night, was believed to be third in the pecking order behind Keith Wood and Shane Byrne before the ban was imposed, although Ulster's Paul Shields has now entered the equation.