Knee injury forces Robbie Henshaw to return home

The Irish team manager Mick Kearney has confirmed that Robbie Henshaw has returned to Ireland in order to see a consultant and ascertain the severity of the knee injury which has ruled him out of Saturday's series-deciding third test against the Springboks in Port Elizabeth.

“Robbie Henshaw has returned home and will see a consultant about his knee in Dublin, just to assess the severity of his injury. Apart from Robbie, all 31 players are expected to train for the rest of the week.”

As to whether Henshaw had sustained a cartilage or ligament injury, Kearney said: “I don’t know. It’s too early to assess as this stage. He’ll go back and he’ll meet somebody, I’m sure, as soon as possible and we’ll probably know a bit more later in the week.”

None of the other bumps and bruises are expected to prevent the remainder of the squad training from tomorrow onwards after what was mostly a rest day today, featuring a swim in the Indian Ocean across the road from the team’s hotel.

"Rhys Ruddock did get a couple of stitches above his eye but he'll be fine. Lads underwent a good recovery session in the Indian Ocean this morning and have the rest of the day off apart from a walk-through this afternoon. They will then train as normal tomorrow morning, down day Wednesday, train again Thursday and then captain's run at the Nelson Mandela stadium on Friday."

Although Jack McGrath and Jared Payne were limping slightly when departing from Saturday's second test, Kearney said: "No problems whatsoever. Jared had a bit of cramp and Jack had put in a massive shift as well, so no issues with anybody else."

Kearney confirmed that there will be a full training session on Tuesday. “We were a little bit delayed coming up from Johannesburg yesterday which probably in hindsight wasn’t a bad thing because it allowed the lads to rest up in the morning.”

“So we got here about 7pm last night and had a lie-in this morning. They enjoyed the swim out in the ocean, so a very easy day today and then tomorrow they’ll be back, full steam ahead for Saturday. So a normal Tuesday training session tomorrow.”

Apart from several of the backroom staff, the only Irish player on their originally scheduled flight from Johannesburg on Sunday was Keith Earls, with the entire Springboks squad also aboard.

“It was just numbers to be honest with you,” explained Kearney. “We were actually meant to be on that flight and there was a bit of a mix up from the South African Rugby Union end, who look after our internal flights. So we ended up being bumped off that flight and we got the 5pm flight instead but it really wasn’t an issue at all.”

“He (Earls) said he was in the midst of a lot big Springboks and he felt a little bit lonely but he got through it okay and arrived safely.”