Marty Moore’s season appears to be over after damaging his shoulder against Toulon. The 24-year-old requires a second surgery since October, with the recuperation period from the previous operation took 12 weeks.
Tadhg Furlong will provide cover behind Mike Ross for the big derby game against Ulster in Ravenhill on Friday.
There is further concern over Cian Healy’s shoulder, which also required a scan yesterday, but Moore’s injury brings the lack of depth at tighthead prop back into focus for Ireland ahead of the World Cup.
Nathan White is also about to undergo his second surgery of the year (lower back disc problem) and will be unavailable for eight weeks.
Declan Fitzpatrick was recently forced to retire due to concussion.
Rodney Ah You sat on the Irish bench last November but wasn't trusted with any sustained game time.
Munster felt the need to contract BJ Botha for another season as Stephen Archer was unable to nail down a starting role.
Meanwhile, Shane Jennings has also been ruled out of the Ulster game after struggling with the concussion sustained against the Dragons on April 12th.
“Jenno was still symptomatic last week so he is still on that return to play protocol,” said coach Matt O’Connor. “It will probably be too short for him to recover for Friday.”
The 33-year-old retires from rugby this summer.
Regarding Ian Madigan’s state of mind following the intercept pass that led to Bryan Habana’s try during Sunday’s Champions Cup semi-final in Marseille, O’Connor said: “Thankfully Ian’s pretty resilient mentally.
“He’s got to be better moving forward. He’s got to get back on the horse and be as good as he can, as quick as he can.
“There is a process in place where you can do things a bit better,” O’Connor continued. “The disappointing thing from Ian’s perspective is that there was a break in the process that allows Habana to make that read.
“I think if you do the process a little bit better – it wasn’t about passing the ball or not passing the ball but there are things in and around how we approached that as a team. That’s a little bit specific to Habana. And I said post game he’s made a career out of that. That’s what he does, that’s what he’s incredibly good at.
“There is a little bit of growth in relation to the awareness of those dynamics as well.
“It’s probably not a (game) management issue. It’s more of a training and a decision-making scenario.”
