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Ireland star in line for 'incredible' recovery

By Online Editors
Joey Carbery will cover scrum-half for Ireland.

Joey Carbery is poised to complete an “incredible” recovery from ankle trouble in time for Ireland’s World Cup opener against Scotland.

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Munster star Carbery suffered a nasty ankle ligament problem in Ireland’s opening World Cup warm-up clash, the 29-10 victory over Italy in Dublin on Saturday, August 10.

The 23-year-old could have been touch and go to make the tournament at all, but may now be ready to take on the Scots in Yokohama on September 22.

Head coach Joe Schmidt has revealed Carbery is expected to return to full training on Monday, while forwards coach Simon Easterby hailed the fly-half’s impressive job to get back to fitness so quickly.

“We were hugely disappointed for him when he went down against Italy, but he, and the medical and strength and conditioning staff have done an incredible job to get him to this point,” said Easterby.

“If there wasn’t the confidence within him and what the guys could do with him over the period from when he got injured he wouldn’t have travelled.

“And I think that was largely due to the confidence that he brought, but also the confidence that the strength and conditioning staff and the medics brought to the whole thing.

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“There was plenty of discussion over it, because it was such an important decision to take, on someone coming with an injury.

“But I think he and the guys around him have worked incredibly hard to get to this stage.”

Robbie Henshaw remains Ireland’s chief doubt for their World Cup opener against Gregor Townsend’s Scotland, the result of which could well map out the rest of Pool A.

Leinster powerhouse Henshaw pulled up with a hamstring problem in training on Saturday, and now faces a nervous wait for the results of a scan.

Allied to the nearly fit-again Carbery, Ireland are also hoping for good news on flyer Keith Earls.

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The Munster wing is battling to shake off a thigh complaint, and is likely to start against Scotland if fit.

“Joey Carbery has trained well on Saturday and will train fully with the team on Monday,” said Ireland boss Schmidt.

“Keith will either train Wednesday or Friday, so he’s close as well.

“So it just means that apart from Robbie we’re hopefully not too badly off.”

The Rugby Pod take a look at Ireland

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Nickers 5 hours ago
All Blacks sabbaticals ‘damage Super Rugby Pacific when it is fighting for survival’

Sabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.

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