Ireland rugby team is grappling with a potential injury issue in the hooker position prior to their November four-Test series. It appears that the team’s primary hookers, Dan Sheehan and Ronan Kelleher, will not be available for Ireland’s forthcoming match against New Zealand on Friday, 8th November at Aviva Stadium, and possibly even for the subsequent Autumn Nations Series fixtures against Argentina, Fiji and Australia.
This predicament emerged after it was confirmed by Leinster’s head coach, Leo Cullen, that Kelleher’s ankle injury, obtained during the victory against Benetton in Treviso the previous week, necessitated a minor surgery, putting him on the bench for approximately “four to six weeks”. The match against the All Blacks is in four weeks’ time.
Kelleher, who underwent an ankle operation, will be out for an uncertain period of four to six weeks. Sheehan is expected to be off the pitch until next year owing to an ACL injury he obtained during Ireland’s second Test victory in Durban. Meanwhile, Rob Herring, who was the third hooker in the previous year’s World Cup, Six Nations and the tour to South Africa, is yet to play this season because of a calf injury he sustained during preseason.
Furthermore, Tom Stewart, Ireland’s fourth-choice hooker who earned his first cap in the World Cup warm-up victory over Samoa in Bayonne last year, is also not expected to play until December, having had a leg surgery during summer. As for now, eyes are set on potential replacements such as Connacht’s Dave Heffernan, Niall Scannell, Diarmuid Barron from Munster, and Lee Barron from Leinster.
No further information was given by Cullen about when Robbie Henshaw might return this season, nor about the nature of injury that has kept him from participating as of now.