Although Johann van Graan rated Peter O'Mahony's chances of leading Munster out in their Heineken Champions Cup pool decider this Saturday against Exeter at Thomond Park as "50-50 at best", the odds of him doing so would appear less favourable than that.
The full extent of O'Mahony's rib cartilage injury will only become clearer after the results of a scan. But given the opening Six Nations game against England is only a fortnight away from next Saturday that might also count against his participation.
“He’s gone for a scan this morning. He’s had some treatment over the weekend. With a bang to the ribs and rib cartilage you do have a lot of pain. It’s not something that just goes away. So we’ll give him every opportunity to recover up to Saturday,” said van Graan before the squad’s training session in their High Performance Centre at the University of Limerick this afternoon.
“Unfortunately, if you’re a forward, it’s not something you can hide, if you go to the breakdown, or steal a ball. I had a chat to him this morning, he’s very open-minded about it.
“He’d love to play in this game, but his body has to work with it first. First and foremost, it’s Pete’s health that’s most important so we’ll make a decision on it later in the week.”
