Brian O'Driscoll may be in a race against time to be fit for the second of Ireland's pool games, against Georgia four weeks hence, and as with Shane Horgan, there is a danger he might not be at optimum match fitness for the crunch encounter with France on September 21st.
But at least he has a race. As the wounded captain travelled to hospital in Bayonne on Thursday night, he and Eddie O'Sullivan, along with the rest of the Ireland squad and many thousands of Irish supporters, would gladly have taken just having him on the starting line.
Hence a collective sigh of relief greeted yesterday's news that the suspected cheekbone fracture was instead a fracture to a sinus.
With a projected recovery time of three to four weeks, this rules him out of next Friday's final warm-up game, against Italy in Ravenhill, and Ireland's tournament opener, against Namibia in Bordeaux in three week's time. But it leaves him with the possibility of facing Georgia six days later in preparation for the rendezvous with the hosts.
Mikaera Tewhata, the 31-year-old Kiwi lock who floored O'Driscoll with a 61st-minute punch during Ireland's 42-6 defeat of Bayonne in the Stade Jean Dauger on Thursday night, had seemed set to rival his more celebrated compatriot Tana Umaga as Irish rugby's bête noire.
But yesterday's early-morning press release allayed fears that, as with his curtailed captaincy of the Lions, O'Driscoll's World Cup would be over before it started. The damage to Ireland's midfield cutting edge, and their morale going into the tournament, would have been incalculable.
Following an X-ray and scan of O'Driscoll's injury, it was confirmed he had sustained a fracture to a sinus and a deep laceration under his right eye. The significance from a competitive point of view is that the injury will not require surgery.
The recovery period is said to be three or four weeks.
Ultimately then, Ireland escaped relatively unscathed from Bayonne's ultra-physical approach in front of a near capacity 14,000 crowd, the pride of the Basque region responding to a double whammy of tries at the start of each half by blatantly seeking out opponents with late or off-the-ball hits, amid accusations from the away dressingroom of gouging as well.
In the circumstances, the 24-year-old English referee Wayne Barnes looked hopelessly out of his depth, though that said, he wasn't given much assistance by his officials and he was in an utterly unenviable position.
The Bayonne captain, the abrasive 32-year-old centre Richard Dourthe, was dropped for ever more after France's 22-15 defeat to an O'Driscoll-inspired Ireland in Lansdowne Road in 2001 and had said in an interview published in l'Équipe on the morning of the Bayonne game, "I don't have a nice memory of the Irish. I'm aware that my last selection in blue was against them . . . For me, there is no such thing as a friendly match."
He added, "If by chance O'Driscoll is in convalescence at the time of the World Cup, that would be an atout (asset or trump card) for France.
"That is not the objective of the exercise. And, in any case, I'd have to catch him."
Dourthe may well have been joking, but his comments were put in a grisly perspective by the way the night unfolded. Nor, predictably, was he remotely contrite afterwards.
"It was a little physical, but it was physical on both sides. We responded individually, they responded as a team," he said, whatever that meant.
Coupled with the knowledge that France are not only hosting the Coupe du Monde but are also meeting Ireland in the pool stages, by rights French rugby should be deeply embarrassed by Bayonne's array of what O'Sullivan called "cheap shots", and Bernard Lapasset, president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR), was evidently angered by the events of Thursday night.
"I haven't the words to describe what I feel," he said. "This should have been a festival of rugby in a full stadium. Happily, we sent an official delegate, a foreign referee. I want to know what happened. I will open an inquiry."
To that end he has initiated steps towards a disciplinary hearing and has demanded a copy of the match video from the French team's video analyst, Olivier Nouailles, who was in attendance along with France's defence coach, David Ellis.
The latter would not have seen Ireland play anything like their full hand.
Come September 21st, Ireland will, hopefully, be able to do so, O'Driscoll fully restored and ready to play.