IRELAND hooker and captain Keith Wood, who dislocated his left shoulder just before the interval in the match against France at Lansdowne Road last Saturday, will undergo an operation on the shoulder next Saturday morning.

Wood will be out of the game for eight weeks and will, consequently, miss Ireland's three remaining matches in the Five Nations series. But he is confident he will be back playing by the end of March or early April and said, he expects to be available for consideration for the Lions tour to South Africa in May. Wood got the news that an operation will be necessary when he visited a specialist yesterday.

"I will have the operation to have two pins inserted in the shoulder," Wood said yesterday. "Obviously I am disappointed to miss the rest of the championship, but I suppose in a sense I am relieved that at least I will be able to play again this season and will be in with a chance of making the Lions touring party.

"I would very much like to go on the Lions tour. I hope in that respect that the fact that I will miss the remainder of the championship will not go against me. I had been told earlier in the week that, even if I had to have the operation I should still be back playing within eight weeks. I have again been told that is the case. I just want to get the operation over and get back training and then playing. The injury is nothing comparable to the one I had on my right shoulder that kept me out all last season."

By being capped for Ireland, Wood emulated the achievement of his father, the late Gordon. Gordon was on the Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1959. If Keith makes the Lions tour to South Africa it will be only the second time an Irish father and son toured with the Lions. Jamie Clinch toured South Africa in 1924 and his father A D (Coo) toured South Africa in 1896.