Bleak Leinster injury update all but confirms crisis for Ireland

Leinster loosehead prop Jack Boyle is set to undergo a procedure on his Achilles tendon, which will almost certainly rule him out of the Six Nations.

The 23-year-old was in line to start for Ireland in the No.1 jersey this Championship due to injuries to his club-mates Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy, but was carted off the field in the opening 20 minutes of Leinster’s victory over Connacht in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday.

Boyle was replaced in the Ireland squad on Sunday by his loosehead counterpart in the victory over Connacht, the uncapped 20-year-old Billy Bohan, ahead of their training camp in Portugal this week.

Andy Farrell will be forced to dig deep into his loosehead reserves for this Six Nations, with a daunting fixture with France in Paris to get the Championship underway on Thursday, February 5. Ireland’s three fit looseheads in the squad, Munster’s Jeremy Loughman and Michael Milne, and Bohan have eight caps between them.

To make matters worse, on the other side of the scrum both Tadhg Furlong and Finlay Bealham have been sidelined with calf and knee injuries, respectively, but have both been included in Ireland’s Six Nations squad.

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While Leinster have not provided a prognosis, Achilles issues are seldom a quick fix, and this could well spell the end of Boyle’s season.

Elsewhere in Leinster’s injury update, there was no good news either for Ireland’s other injured contingent, with no update on Ryan Baird, Robbie Henshaw, Jordan Larmour, Paddy McCarthy, Jimmy O’Brien, Andrew Porter and Rabah Slimani.

Ireland will provide the curtain raiser for the Championship at the Stade de France, before returning home for a round two encounter with Italy.

France have also had to deal with their share of injuries, with veteran tighthead Uini Atonio withdrawing from the squad after picking up an injury in a warm-up for La Rochelle the day before the squad assembled.