Hamstring Injury Rules McFadden Out Of Leinster’s Final Games

Speaking to the media at Leinster HQ today, the province’s senior coach Stuart Lancaster ruled Fergus McFadden out for the rest of the season due to the hamstring injury he picked up against the Scarlets recently.

The injury means that Fergus McFadden, who was a try scorer on the right wing against the Llanelli side, will miss this Saturday’s Champions Cup final against Racing 92 in Bilbao, and also the GUINNESS PRO14 semi-final against Munster a week later at the RDS.

Stuart Lancaster confirmed: “It’s a huge blow for Ferg, he played so well and fought his way back into form, into the team in a really competitive position. To be out for the rest of the season, not just the Champions Cup final but the semi-final the week after as well. We’re blessed that we’ve got a number of players in that position, but it’s really disappointing for him.”

McFadden had been a very consistent performer this season for both Leinster and Ireland, scoring three tries in 17 outings for his native province and playing in two games during Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning campaign.

Lancaster did have better news on the recovery from an ankle injury of scrum half Luke McGrath, with the 25-year-old expected to train as normal this week having made a successful return to training last week.

“We’re pretty optimistic (about Luke) now. We trained midweek last week and he trained on the Tuesday and the Wednesday and there’s been no reaction to that. We’re going to train now, we’re training Tuesday, Wednesday off. We’re very optimistic.

“It’s a competitive position with Nick McCarthy there as well. Luke’s a high quality player, the biggest bonus for me was the performance of Jamison (Gibson-Park) in the semi-final – to have him step up and play at that level against such a good team.

“I know that was really positive for him, but having Luke come back into the equation as an experienced player is great for us. We’ve got some decisions to make there. Rhys (Ruddock) – we’ll see how today goes, he’s made great progress. A setback in the Saracens game, but he’s training today so he’s available.”

There was a positive update on Jordi Murphy, who is expected to train as normal this week having been a late withdrawal from the bench for the Connacht game, and Ruddock who has made good progress from a hamstring injury. He will be further assessed as the week goes on.