Ireland: Simon Easterby reveals the extent of Joe McCarthy’s injury from a ‘nasty blow’ and issues a Tadhg Furlong update
Simon Easterby has provided an injury update on two of Ireland's star forwards.
Joe McCarthy misses Ireland’s Six Nations opener against England after sustaining an injury in training, interim head coach Simon Easterby has confirmed.
The second-rower was a surprise omission from the team to kickstart Ireland’s title defence but Easterby has explained that an ‘innocuous’ incident is the reason for it.
Joe McCarthy’s injury
McCarthy enjoyed a standout 2024 in Ireland colours but has been dealt a blow to start the new year while Easterby has also provided an update on veteran prop Tadhg Furlong who was not risked for the fixture.
“Joe took a knock to the head yesterday in training and unfortunately, it put him out straight away for this game,” Easterby explained.
“It’s a real disappointment for him and the team but he’s good now, fortunately, there’s no long-standing issue there in terms of any breaks or anything but he might have damaged his nose, it might look a little bit like mine now,” he joked.
“But other than that he’s good and he’ll hopefully be joining up with the squad this weekend but unfortunately not available this weekend.”
In McCarthy’s absence, Tadhg Beirne and James Ryan will start in the second-row with Ryan Baird given an opportunity at blindside flanker.
While the lock has sustained a setback, he is expected to be back for Ireland’s second game of the Championship against Scotland.
“It was a rugby kind of collision, it was really innocuous in terms of it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances that ended up someone’s head landed on his head,” Easterby added.
“It was just a nasty blow but he’s come around well and he should be good to go.”
Tadhg Furlong update
Meanwhile, Furlong could also return for the clash with Scotland as Easterby explained that the tighthead could have featured against England this week but the coaching team opted not to risk further damage.
The veteran forward missed Ireland’s Autumn Nations Series through a calf strain.
“Tadhg Furlong unfortunately had a recurrence of the calf injury and it’s nothing major, to be honest,” the former back-row explained.
“It just wasn’t quite right and we weren’t prepared to try and push him through this week so we made the right decision for Tadhg and for the team for him to go back and rehab and make sure that he was comfortable with his plan over the next couple of weeks.
“It’s not a major issue but it wasn’t one that we were prepared to take any risk this weekend.”
