Lawrence Dallaglio yesterday mulled over the injury which heartlessly curtailed his second Lions' tour in succession with indecent and unhelpful haste, and even managed to inject some humour into the story, revealing that his three young children had laughed when they saw daddy taken off the Rotorua International pitch last Saturday on a golf cart.

Like so many major injuries, it seemed to happen innocuously; Dallaglio arriving at the tackle area to help Brian O'Driscoll pull the Bay of Plenty centre Grant McQuoid to the ground. His right foot slipped along the turf and buckled underneath him, O'Driscoll and McQuoid, fracturing his ankle.

"I knew my leg had been caught in the ground and it wasn't facing in the right direction after the incident," he recalled yesterday. "I had fractured and dislocated it. I was in a lot of pain and James (Robson) was able to put it back in on the pitch. He had never had to do that before and once the ankle was back in, the pain subsided.

"I was lying there thinking, 'I have never been taken off on a stretcher before in my career'! There is a first time for everything and even when I did my ACL in the knee in 2001, I still played on. I knew straight away that my tour was over - there was no messing around because I realised the severity of the problem."

The hospital staff in Rotorua had been watching the game and realigned his ankle joint slightly to ensure it mended properly before he travelled to Auckland for an operation on Sunday.

"I have broken the fibia - the smaller of the two leg bones - and there is trauma to the ankle ligaments. If you are going to break a leg bone then it's the one to break. I have had five screws and a metal plate inserted in the leg and I am a lot more positive about the injury now that I know what I have done."

Dallaglio will remain on in Auckland for 10 to 14 days and takes solace in having gone through a similarly extensive and intensive rehabilitation programme after his knee ligament injury in 2001. "I am under no illusions about the amount of hard work I am going to face to get fit for next season and I will be very disappointed if I am not back playing by October - so will the surgeon." Dallaglio said he was looking forward to the time off, joking: "I just didn't think it would be this kind of break!"

Massively disappointed would be an understatement, but invariably he will convey a positive message to his fellow Lions. "I can't get too frustrated even though I firmly believe this trip has all the hallmarks of a successful tour. I felt I had a big part to play in the tour because I was in the best shape I have ever been in and I could tell that in the first 15 minutes of the Bay of Plenty game.

"There are so many quality players in the Lions squad and so much talent and I still believe we can be successful in the Test series. I have no doubts about that."

There is no readymade substitute for Dallaglio, and Clive Woodward didn't even opt for another specialist number eight in Simon Easterby, whose credentials would have been extolled by both his club coach Gareth Jenkins and his national coach Eddie O'Sullivan.

Given Easterby's form tapered away toward the end of the Six Nations, he could be viewed as a tad lucky strictly on form, although Jenkins says his qualities are those required of a Lion.

"It's the total professionalism of the boy. He's a great line-out player, he's got an intensity in the contact area that's probably as good as it gets. He's got a magnificent tackling game and a great understanding of the game, in particular of the contact area."

Ironically, Easterby is, like Dallaglio, a former pupil of Ampleforth College. He received the phone call from Louise Ramsay in Shannon Airport on Saturday informing him of his call up an hour and a half before boarding the plane which was taking the Irish squad to Japan.

So, after being fined 2000 yen by his team-mates, he was re-routedto Gatwick, from where he hailed a cab to Heathrow and began the long journey to New Zealand, arriving yesterday.

Like another cruelly unfortunate stricken Lion in the prime of his form, Malcolm O'Kelly, Easterby is getting married this summer - to Sarrah, daughter of a former Welsh Lion Elgin Rees. And what of the wedding arrangements? "I'd done loads before I left," he quipped.

"No, there's a little bit to do still, but she's got it all under control with her mother. I'm not coming here to fill Lawrence's boots. He's a one-off, and looking at the game he looked in outstanding form and really sharp.

"It's a huge blow for him and a huge disappointment, but I've got to hopefully bring something of my own to the tour and make a positive impact when I get the chance."