It's an ill wind and all that. Ideally when a team unveil a new jersey it helps if there's a few injured players to don the kit and thus not disrupt a training week, and so when Canterbury unveiled Leinster's new European jersey yesterday they had three heavy hitters for the occasion in Rob Kearney, Robbie Henshaw and Seán O'Brien.
All are in various stages of rehabilitation from contrasting injuries, although their problems pale in comparison to their 35-year-old former Leinster and Ireland team-mate Nathan White, after it was confirmed yesterday that the Connacht tighthead has been forced to retire due to a concussion injury.
Of the aforementioned Leinster trio, Kearney looks likeliest to return first from the minor knee injury he suffered an hour into his second comeback game against Glasgow, possibly for their showdown with Munster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday week.
Champions Cup
Henshaw might also return for the Munster game as well, or else for Leinster’s opening European Champions Cup game at home to Castres on October 15th.
Relieved to have had two rugby sessions under his belt this week since recovering from the knee injury he sustained in the second Test in South Africa, Henshaw expects to resume contact work next week “and then see how the knee holds up. Maybe a one- or two-week time-frame. I am not sure but there have been no setbacks or flare-ups with the knee, which is positive. It’s day-to-day – as of now, it is going well.”
O’Brien, who has been sidelined since February with a hamstring problem that eventually required an operation is “still a couple of weeks away from returning. It’s obviously been a few months now since I had the op and everything has gone really well. I can’t complain. I didn’t have any hiccups. I’m probably a week or two ahead of where I thought I was going to be.
“It was just a very unusual tear. It was a little bit trickier in terms of the way it had to be repaired. That was the worrying part for me but literally a week after the surgery I knew it was different already. I didn’t have any more pain. There wasn’t a flinch out of it.”
Ideally, with Ireland’s November internationals also in mind, O’Brien is targeting an October return. “If I don’t, I don’t and I won’t be picked for November but that depends on the injury and how the next few weeks go.
“This is my career as such, it’s not about getting back for one game. This is about me wanting to play rugby for the next four or five years. There’s no point me going back a week before I should because that is good night then.
“That is basically what it would be if I tore it again so I don’t think there would be another option. That’s why I am taking my time; why there is no deadline. That’s just the way it is.”
Retirement
White, who brought his tally of Irish caps to 13 when featuring in all of Ireland's World Cup and Six Nations games last season, informed his Connacht team mates of his retirement this week.
“While it’s disappointing to finish up this way and not on my own terms, I feel that I can look back at my rugby career with a lot of pride. I am retiring at 35 years of age and with so many great memories from my time playing in both New Zealand and Ireland.”
