Facial Injury To Sideline Stander For ‘Up To Four Weeks’

As the Ireland squad begin preparations for their round 2 trip to Scotland. an injury update has been issued following Saturday’s opening Guinness Six Nations clash with England.

Keith Earls, who came off at half-time during the 32-20 defeat at the Aviva Stadium, suffered a hip pointer injury and will be managed across the early part of the week.

Devin Toner aggravated an ankle injury and was replaced in the 56th minute, while Garry Ringrose reported some hamstring tightness. Both players will be further assessed by the Ireland medical team over the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, CJ Stander has a facial injury that could rule him out for up to four weeks, meaning he will miss the upcoming games against Scotland and Italy. Andrew Conway presented with some calf tightness following training last Thursday and will rehab in Munster this week.

Reflecting on the losing start to the Championship and Ireland’s determination to bounce straight back, prop Tadhg Furlong said: “You just recalibrate, look and learn. We’ve been on a good run, and look, this is just probably a bit of a reality check for us. It’s important now that we look after the bodies, take on what we can learn from the game and it’s a massive game in Scotland next weekend for us now.

“Look, it’s disappointing. First of all we’re at home and we have a really good record here, but again it comes back to doing what we can do. Did we implement that at the start of the game? Not really. Was there some really good play by England? Absolutely. Can we control that going into the next game? Absolutely.

“It’s about refocusing and working hard and our pride, it gets dented, it’s never nice losing at home on the first weekend of the Six Nations. I suppose we have to take it as a learning.”