Iain Henderson’s season over after Ulster and Ireland lock undergoes toe surgery

Iain Henderson has been ruled out of Ulster’s remaining games this season and Ireland’s two-Test tour to South Africa after undergoing surgery on his injured toe.

The Ulster captain is “now expected to be sidelined for approximately three months” according to his province, while the IRFU has confirmed that the 81-times capped lock will miss Ireland’s back-to-back Test matches against the world champions on July 6th in Pretoria and July 13th in Durban.

Admittedly, Ireland are well stocked with locks given the impending return of James Ryan and the form of Tadhg Beirne, Joe McCarthy and Ryan Baird, not to mention Tom Ahern. But Henderson’s loss has been compounded for Ulster by confirmation that centre James Hume (knee) has also had surgery and “will enter a period of rehab for the coming months”.

Luke Marshall (concussion) and Rob Baloucoune (hamstring) suffered recent injuries in training and are unavailable for Ulster’s last home game of the season against Leinster at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday.