O'Connell in doubt for Tests

Editor

Veteran lock Paul O'Connell is an injury concern for Ireland ahead of the November Tests as he struggles to shake off a calf injury.

Veteran lock Paul O'Connell is an injury concern for Ireland ahead of the November Tests as he struggles to shake off a calf injury.

Paul O'Connell will be unable to train until next week due to the injury picked up the warm-up for Munster's Pro12 game at Glasgow last week.

Ireland open their end-of-year campaign against Samoa on 9 November and the 85-cap second row is unsure if he'll be ready in time.

“The injury is a little bit niggly. I'm not going to train this week but hopefully be back into it next week. It's hard to know,” O'Connell told RTE.

“It's something similar to what Brian (O'Driscoll) has. His took three-and-a-half weeks and I'm hopeful it won't take that long. It can be a bit of a guessing game; hopefully I'll be back training next week.

“I feel very good at the moment and I'm improving every day so hopefully it will continue like that over the next few days.”

“I think Samoa have the French [Barbarians] and Georgia as their only other games in the autumn, so our game is their only game against a tier one nation and I think they're going to target that.”