Rugby:Declan Kidney will be sweating on the fitness of Felix Jones before he names his World Cup squad after the full back was driven from the pitch in a medical cart in the 71st minute of today's defeat by France at Aviva stadium after falling awkwardly while catching a high ball.
The Munster player, making his full Test debut, had played his way into contention for the 30-man party for New Zealand, which is named at lunchtime on Monday.
“Felix has had an X-ray which didn’t show a broken bone, but he’ll have a scan tomorrow,” said Kidney. “Only once we know the results of that will we be able to asses it fully. We need to check for ligament damage.”
Kidney was able to deliver a more definitive update on loosehead prop Cian Healy, who had to be helped from the pitch during in the 51st minute.
“Someone stood on Cian’s foot 10 days ago in training and unfortunately someone trod on the same spot today,” added Kidney.
“It’s just something that needs a little bit of fresh air and time for the bruise to heal.”
Despite losing a third Test in the warm-up programme and with only next Saturday’s clash against England at the Aviva left before the team depart, Kidney is content that the squad’s preparations are on track.
“The pressure’s the same for every game. We’ve tried to win each one and that’s what we’ll do next Saturday,” he said.
“Three losses isn’t what we want to have. We’d have liked to have won them all, we haven’t hidden from that fact.
“Am I concerned? No not really. In terms of what we’re doing and the way we’re going about it, I believe we are going the right way.”
Captain Brian O’Driscoll, who alongside Gordon D’Arcy and Stephen Ferris made a successful return from injury, admitted Ireland could only perform for spells.
“Hopefully we’ll get better at playing that very high tempo game we produced in the first 15-20 minutes the more we play,” he said.
“It’s difficult to play for that intensity for 80 minutes. We played for 20 minutes in the first half and 15 minutes at the end.
“We need to play like that for far longer periods if we are to stay in the game against good opposition like France.
“We were predictable in that first quarter but when we got tired maybe we got easier to read.”
