Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan reflected on Shane Horgan’s return and his squad’s injuries worries at Wednesday’s team announcement press conference in Killiney.
“It’s a nice surprise for everybody. It’s a pretty phenomenal recovery from what was regarded to be a minimum three-week injury. He’s back a week early.
“Credit to Shane himself, who’s worked tirelessly since he came off the pitch at Gloucester. Credit to our medical staff who have managed him so well.
“Credit to the surgeon, but in particular, credit to our rehab physio Brian Green, who’s done an incredible job on him.
“It was a real team effort. We often throw out plaudits to the medical staff in hindsight but when you’re dealing with a group of top-class professionals these things are very important, these turnarounds, which in the context of where we are, are very important for us.
“If Brian doesn’t make it through for the weekend, Shane will go to 12, which is a reasonably good solution to the problem.”
“I’m not overly concerned because we have some depth in that area (scrum half) now. Hopefully, we’ll have Peter avaialable because he’s playing out of his skin at the moment but we have Isaac Boss and Eoin Reddan.
“So, we’ve a bit of depth there now. If this had happened twelve months ago, we could have been under a lot more pressure.”
“The timelines are very tight. In Brian’s case, he has a hamstring strain and the seven-day turnaround is not helpful. But he’s a good healer though and he’s working around the clock on it.
“Peter has got a small crack in a bone in his hand. It’s not an issue that could stop him playing but it could restrict his ability to pass and to grapple and hold, which would affect his performance.
“So we’ll just have to see how that comes around. I’d like to be able to say that they’re going to play today but it’s too early to say. We’re only three days on since they were hit with the injuries.”
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