Ireland injury news: Peter O’Mahony ruled out of the World Cup

Tough time: Peter O’Mahony is treated and Johnny Sexton (below) also suffers on a worrying night for Ireland
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Chris Jones12 October 2015

The problems piled up for Ireland today with flanker Peter O’Mahony ruled out of the rest of the World Cup and captain Paul O’Connell expected to follow.

Both players were hurt in the victory over France and last night the feeling was that while O’Connell’s tournament was almost certainly over due to a hamstring problem, O’Mahony’s knee injury was not as bad.

However, this morning Ireland announced that O’Mahony had suffered knee ligament damage which would keep him out of the remainder of the World Cup.

O’Connell was having a scan this morning, which it was feared would confirm Ireland had lost their talisman. The 35-year-old lock is quitting Test rugby at the end of this tournament so it would be a cruel way for one of the game’s greats to finish his international career.

Ireland could pay an even heavier price for their bruising win over France with fly-half Jonathan Sexton a doubt for Sunday’s quarter-final against Argentina due to a groin injury while Sean O’Brien could be cited after punching Pascal Pape in the stomach.

Ireland finished top of Pool D thanks to their victory over France but the injuries are undermining their bid to reach the last four for the first time.

“It doesn’t look great with Paul,” said head coach Joe Schmidt last night. “It looks like an upper hamstring but we will have to properly wait until we get that scanned just to make sure the inflammation has decreased a little.”

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Ireland are also waiting to discover if O’Brien is in trouble. On-field officials missed the man of the match punching Pape in the first minute but the incident was clearly seen on replays. Given O’Connell’s problems, O’Brien is even more important to Ireland and Schmidt admitted losing the flanker would be a serious blow.

Schmidt said: “I think he was being held at the time. He swung. I don’t think he’s looking directly at the player. I also think it’s not a closed fist. I’d be hopeful but it’s not a decision for me. It’s hopefully not something that impacts on us considering the dressing room at the moment. With the amount of injuries we have, we can ill-afford to lose another player, particularly a player of Sean’s experience and standing.”

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