Declan Kidney views Paul O’Connell as too valuable to be omitted from Ireland’s squad for the summer tour to New Zealand and Australia. The Lions captain was a surprise inclusion in the 33-man party named today after appearing to be losing his battle to play again this season.
O’Connell has been out since incurring a groin problem in the Six Nations finale against Scotland on March 20 and has since received intravenous antibiotics in a Cork hospital.
But having suffered various setbacks during a recovery that forced him to miss Munster’s march to the Heineken Cup semi-finals, there is a glimmer of hope that he may tour Down Under.
“There are four weeks until we play New Zealand and six weeks until we play Australia,” said Kidney. “You don’t write off a player of Paul’s calibre until ou have to.
“With the nature of his injury there’s a chance he’ll return and we’ll give him every opportunity to do that.
“There’s a contingency plan in place in case he doesn’t recover.
“Some lads are going on holiday but they know they might be needed and we’re well covered.
“Paul is showing some signs of improvement. I wouldn’t like to put a figure on it percentage-wise but the nature of his injury is that it could improve rapidly.”
O’Connell’s Lions team-mate Stephen Ferris has been forced to concede defeat in his fitness battle, however, with the broken cheekbone sustained in training at the start of the month ending his tour hopes.
Munster backrow Denis Leamy and Leinster winger Luke Fitzgerald, both longer-term casualties, have also been given the summer off because of their knee problems.
“You will always start a tour without some players who have been lost to injury,” said Kidney. “Australia and South Africa had niggles when they played us in November but didn’t complain about it and we won’t complain about it either.
“It’s a good way for us to develop depth in our squad because if you don’t have that you’ll be found out.”
The squad contains three uncapped players with Ulster backrow Chris Henry and lock Dan Tuohy adding cover in the pack and Leinster centre Fergus McFadden also included.
Kidney has selected his strongest possible squad, resisting any temptation to rest veterans such as John Hayes, Brian O’Driscoll and David Wallace.
“We’ve tried to balance the mix of youth and experience,” said Kidney. “We have three new caps and we have another four lads who don’t have much game time under their belts so they’ll need experienced players around them.
“When you’re playing the top teams in the world you need all the experience you have because there will be no hiding place and you will be exposed.
“You can’t throw 15 young guys in against the best team in the world and expect them to learn things the way they should.
“That will just set them back even more. Any time you have a green jersey on you don’t want that to happen.”
Ireland squad:Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster), Tommy Bowe (Ospreys), Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster), Tom Court (Malone/Ulster), Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht), Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster), Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster), Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster), John Hayes (Bruff/Munster), Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster), Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster)*, Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster), Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster), Shane Jennings (St.Mary's College/Leinster), Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster), Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)*, Kevin McLaughlin (St.Mary's College/Leinster), John Muldoon (Galwegians/Connacht), Geordan Murphy (Leicester), Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster), Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster), Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster), Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster), Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster), Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster), Jonathan Sexton (St.Mary's College/Leinster), Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster), Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)*, David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster), Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
* Uncapped player