Munster backrow Brian Gleeson will be out of action until the new year thanks to a fractured elbow picked up during last month’s win over Leinster.
“I have my eyes on the Ulster game [January 2nd] to try and get back for that, the week before the two-game block of the Champions Cup,” said Gleeson. “I’m five-and-a-half weeks in now, and I got good news there on Tuesday, so everything is looking good, everything’s still in place from the surgery and I should get back in about four or five weeks.”
Gleeson (21) impressed during Munster’s opening run of URC matches. He was named as part of the wider training group for Ireland’s trip to Chicago to face the All Blacks, while he had also been earmarked to play in the recent Ireland XV match against Spain. An impact injury during Munster’s Croke Park heist cost him that opportunity.
Saturday Shambles wraps up Ireland's November window
“Initially I got the bang, I thought it was a dead arm,” he explains. “So the physios came running onto the field and I was like ‘I’m grand, I’ll be fine’. I got to get up and go play and I felt it move and I was like, ‘This has gone’.
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“And then my mind went to ‘That’s Chicago gone’. So that was the disappointment at the start but a day or two after, once I got the surgery done, I was just focused on ‘I’ve got to get back now’.”
It was a cruel blow for a player clearly identified by Andy Farrell as worth integrating into the Ireland squad. Alongside lock Edwin Edogbo, the young Munster duo offer size and dynamism which clearly appeals to the powers that be. That progress has been stalled by the elbow issue, while concussion also prevented Edogbo from training with Ireland in the recent November window. Provided both are fit, one suspects Farrell may well try again come the Six Nations.
“In the nicest way possible, Eddie is a freak of nature,” says Gleeson. “He’s huge, he’s fast, he’s mobile, he’s got great skills. He’s got everything you need to be a proper world class rugby player. He has the ability to do whatever he wants in the game.”
On his own strengths, Gleeson added: “I like to be a physical player, whether it’s on defence or attack. If I’m carrying, no matter who’s in front of me I want to go through them, same if it’s tackling. If I can be as physical as I can then it gives me confidence around other aspects of my game as well.”
