DESPITE KEYHOLE surgery last Friday, Brian O’Driscoll is adamant he will take the field at Twickenham to face Ulster in Saturday’s Heineken Cup final.
The Ireland captain, whose season only began against the Ospreys on March 23rd, due to shoulder/neck surgery, had a “little trim” of his knee cartilage after twisting it at training on Thursday.
In normal circumstances such a procedure requires up to three weeks of recuperation to reduce the swelling. But the hope is O’Driscoll’s freakish powers of recovery – he was initially not expected to play at all this season – will be in evidence once again.
At yesterday’s media gathering in Riverview, the great man was certainly brimming with confidence. “I went and had a little trim of the cartilage done on Friday morning.
“I suppose in my head it was never an option not to be playing this weekend. Recovery has gone well over the weekend.
“You’d want to have a limb falling off really to not play in the Heineken Cup final.”
He will not train until Thursday, a light session, followed by a captain’s run in London on Friday. Anyway, O’Driscoll, who is one shy of Vincent Clerc’s competition record of 32 tries, feels that rest is paramount leading up to a final.
“A big part of weeks like this is about resting up and keeping your feet up on the couch. Sometimes you feel guilty for doing that, but that’s part of your job: making sure that you’re fully rested and ready for Saturday.
“There’s no point in playing out the game beforehand, it’s about this week culminating in 80 minutes come Saturday afternoon and nothing else.”
This, of course, is hardly new territory for the 33-year-old war horse. “I’ve had different injuries at different times and been able to play with them so I will just be drawing on that reserve to understand what it takes to prepare myself as best as possible to take the pitch on Saturday.
“One thing about having a longish career is that you learn to deal with having knocks going into games.
“As much as I mightn’t get to train fully until Thursday, I don’t think I’ll be far off one hundred per cent come Saturday so it doesn’t worry me greatly.”
Everyone else associated with Leinster and Ireland, considering next month’s three-Test series in New Zealand (probably without Paul O’Connell), will do the worrying for him.
A relevant question put to O’Driscoll yesterday is how he has become so resilient, both mentally and physically, in the most attritional of sports.
“I think a part of it is about remaining positive and concentrating on the best-case scenario. If you get down about yourself about something it doesn’t help the healing process.
“Provided you can remain upbeat I think you give your body every chance to recover as soon as it possibly can.
“I think I’m fortunate, too, that physically I do recover from injuries quicker than some. I think it’s a combination of trying to work hard on small things and make sure everything else is ticking over.”
These are words that could be relayed to O’Driscoll’s understudy, Eoin O’Malley, who has been ruled out for at least six months after damaging his right cruciate ligament in last Friday’s Pro 12 semi-final victory over Glasgow.
O’Malley, still only 23, had just returned from six weeks out with a calf problem, while he was hampered by hip problems earlier in a hugely promising career.
Otherwise, Leinster coach Joe Schmidt is expected to select from a full deck with Rob Kearney’s shoulder also being rested this week, although the Ireland fullback is expected to start his first ever European final.
Same goes for Gordon D’Arcy, split open against Glasgow, while Cian Healy’s “sore ankle” will have healed come Saturday.
With O’Driscoll doing a good job of convincing the fourth estate of his well being yesterday, he was asked to talk about the main threats posed by an Ulster side the bookmakers have priced as eight-point underdogs.
Ruan Pienaar’s long-range kicking accuracy was mentioned but so, too, the returning menace that is flanker Chris Henry.
“Discipline is going to be key. When you have a guy who’s able to knock over penalties from 55 or 60 yards out you can’t afford to be giving away silly penalties,” said O’Driscoll.
“Chris Henry is probably one of their most important players. He upsets a lot of teams and really slows ball down, gets away with it, and pushes things to the letter of the law. Sometimes he gets caught out, as he did in the quarter-final (when sin binned against Munster), but more often than not he does a great job for them. It is important that we identify that he is a big strength and try to nullify him.”
LEINSTER INJURY UPDATE: From forwards' coach Jonno Gibbes
EOIN O’MALLEY
“Unfortunately, the news is pretty bad. He has done his right cruciate and he is looking at a long-term rehab of about six months so really unfortunate news for him. We really feel for him.”
CIAN HEALY
“Fine, little bit of a sore ankle, nothing too major.”
ROB KEARNEY
“We may have been able to push him to play at the weekend but it was just a bit of caution with him and he should be fine this week.”
GORDON D’ARCY
“Gordon just got split open, he’s pretty good, got a couple of stitches in there. He’s in good form.”
TOMORROW
CLASSIC CLASHES: A 32-page booklet on the games that have defined the Heineken Cup
