Rugby:Contrary to reports Keith Earls picked up an ankle injury during Munster training in Cork and not with the Ireland squad who are currently in Belfast.
The Young Munster winger has been plagued with injury and missed a large part of last season with a groin problem. He quit yesterday’s training session with his province after suffering an ankle injury.
“The injury occurred in a non contact situation and a subsequent X-ray revealed no break. However Earls will need to undergo further medical examination later in the week to determine the exact extent of the damage,” according to Munster Rugby.
The IRFU had earlier confirmed the injury did not take place with the Ireland squad in Belfast. “Earls is currently undergoing his own rehabilitation training programme for a long standing groin injury, he was not part of the Ireland training squad currently in camp in Belfast and so was not training with Ireland when he sustained the injury to his ankle.”
A 35-man Ireland squad gathered in Belfast for an “informal” gathering and went through their paces with coach Declan Kidney with two sessions yesterday.
This morning they have one more training session at Campbell College before the players are due to be released around 11am to rejoin their provinces.
Munster coach Tony McGahan already has injury concerns as captain and talisman Paul O’Connell is not expected to return to action until around Christmas as he continues to recover from a groin infection.
“I’ll be setting my sights around December, and anything else would be a bonus,” O’Connell told The Irish Times l ast week. “I went back running 10 days ago, and I’ve had no problems. I need to go about 12 weeks from when I stopped the antibiotics and get back into the heavy stuff, so I’m about eight and a half weeks into that now.
“It’s flying along at the moment. It was really slow at the start, but it’s getting quicker now and going very well.”