Ulster scrumhalf Isaac Boss lasted 18 minutes at Stradey Park on Saturday and is considered a serious doubt to take his place on the bench for Ireland's Six Nations clash with Scotland in Murrayfield.
The Tokoroa native damaged his left shoulder, a scan today will reveal the full damage, so Wasps Eoin Reddan has been called up as cover. Boss, who scored the last of Ireland's four tries against England at Croke Park, walked off the Stradey Park pitch just 17 minutes into the Celtic League tie with Llanelli after damaging his shoulder.
"We will have to assess how Isaac feels in the 48 hours after the game. The only good thing is that it is not the same shoulder that he injured before but we will have to wait and see how it turns out," said Ulster manager Mark McCall.
Ten players have been added to the Irish camp this week. Geordan Murphy comes back into contention but Leinster teenager Luke Fitzgerald has yet to return from a neck/shoulder injury but should be available to play Connacht on March 24th.
Seven of those called up are part of the newly formed high performance select group.
The others are Murphy, Reddan - who both play in England - and Frankie Sheahan who will slot into the 22 if Jerry Flannery fails to recover from a minor knock sustained last week.
Meanwhile, England's chances of beating France next Sunday at Twickenham, and giving Ireland a fighting chance at the championship, took a severe triple blow over the weekend with captain Phil Vickery, Jonny Wilkinson and Andy Farrell all sustaining injuries.
Vickery suffered a hefty blow to the head playing for Wasps against Bristol yesterday and left the field looking extremely unsteady. He will have further tests today but Wasps' director of rugby, Ian McGeechan, insisted the prop was "fine".
"The medics said there had been heavy contact but I'm sure he'll be okay," said McGeechan. "We'll speak to England but he recovered enough to come back out and sit on the bench."
Wilkinson's sustained a hamstring injury in Newcastle's comprehensive defeat to London Irish. A game notable for the other three potential English outhalf's Toby Flood, Shane Geraghty and Mike Catt all producing stand out performances.
Farrell, meanwhile, was yesterday morning ruled out of Saracens' win over Sale with a recurrence of back spasms he suffered in January. Alan Gaffney, Saracens' director of rugby, said that he expected the centre to be fit to report for England's training session in Bath today.
"He's fine and he probably could have played today," said Gaffney. "He had a long drive on Friday and he became a little bit stiff as a result. He then trained fine but spent too long kicking and woke up feeling stiff. I wasn't under any pressure from England. I'm not being Mr Nice Guy: if he had been fit, he would have played."
England refused to comment on their escalating fitness problems yesterday. The Bath secondrow Steve Borthwick, who picked up rib damage at Worcester on Saturday, was last night awaiting the results of a scan with the club's head coach, Steve Meehan, saying the injury was a concern, while the Harlequins wing David Strettle sustained a dead leg at Leicester but was declared by his club not to be a doubt for Sunday.
Jason Robinson and Magnus Lund did not appear for Sale yesterday because of neck and head injuries respectively and the club's coach, Philippe Saint-Andre, admitted the wing's neck injury was still a concern, rating him only 50-50 to be fit for England's date with France.
The Wasps flanker Tom Rees suffered a bruised cheek during their match yesterday. In contrast the France captain, Raphael Ibanez, remained on the bench in High Wycombe for the entire game.
Meanwhile, Australia prop Greg Holmes is in danger of missing this year's World Cup after injuring his shoulder playing for Queensland at the weekend. Holmes has been ruled out of the rest of the Super 14 competition after being told he needs an operation and faces a fight to be fit for the World Cup, which starts in France in September.
His Queensland team-mate Clinton Schifcofske, who has made an impressive start to his rugby union career after switching codes from rugby league, is also facing a stint on the sidelines after suffering a suspected broken hand.
Holmes is the third senior Australian player to require surgery in the lead-up to the World Cup.
Fullback Chris Latham underwent a full knee reconstruction after getting hurt in pre-season training and openside flanker flanker Phil Waugh needed ankle surgery.
A host of other top players, including Stephen Larkham, Stirling Mortlock and Clyde Rathbone, are also recovering from less serious injuries as the casualty toll starts to reach alarming proportions.
World Cup favourites New Zealand banned their top players from competing in the first half of the Super 14 to limit their chances of sustaining serious injury.
IRELAND CAMP: (added players) Backs: Tommy Bowe (Ulster), Barry Murphy (Munster), Rob Kearney (Leinster), Geordan Murphy (Leicester), Eoin Reddan (Wasps). Forwards: Trevor Hogan (Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster), Stephen Ferris (Ulster), Bryan Young (Ulster), Frankie Sheahan (Munster).
Chabal back for France
France have recalled Sebastien Chabal for Sunday's Six Nations game against England at Twickenham but lost Sylvain Marconnet to a serious skiing injury.
Team press officer Lionel Rossigneux said the Stade Francais prop "suffered a double fracture of the shinbone and the fibula.
"He will need surgery. He is out until the end of the Six Nations and could be sidelined for up to four months," he added.
Marconnet (30) is France's most capped prop with 71 appearances.
His replacement by veteran Pieter de Villiers is the main change in the 22-man squad for next Sunday's match at Twickenham.
Coach Bernard Laporte has mainly rotated the players who took part in France's wins over Italy, Ireland and Wales in their first three games of the championship.
The French coach recalled replacement hooker Sebastien Bruno and number eight Chabal, who both play club rugby in England with Sale Sharks.
Also back are lock Pascal Pape and wing Cedric Heymans. Out are hooker Benoit August, lock Gregory Lamboley, number eight Elvis Vermeulen and wing Aurelien Rougerie.
Laporte is due to name his starting line-up on Wednesday.
After testing Pierre Mignoni at scrumhalf, he has already said he would give a start to Dimitri Yachvili, who was relegated to the bench for the first three games. The 32-cap Yachvili had been regarded as France's number one scrumhalf since the 2003 World Cup.
He acquired the nickname "Scourge of England" when he scored 19, 18 and 16 points in France's three wins over the world champions in their last Six Nations encounters.
FRENCH SQUAD:Forwards: Raphael Ibanez, Sebastien Bruno, Olivier Milloud, Nicolas Mas, Pieter de Villiers, Lionel Nallet, Pascal Pape, Jerome Thion, Serge Betsen, Julien Bonnaire, Imanol Harinordoquy, Sebastien Chabal. Backs: Pierre Mignoni, Dimitri Yachvili, David Skrela, Lionel Beauxis, Yannick Jauzion, David Marty, Christophe Dominici, Vincent Clerc, Cedric Heymans, Clement Poitrenaud.
