Brian O’Driscoll injury sidelines him from Rugby World Cup warm-up matches - Rugby News
Irish player Brain O’Driscoll has been removed from the roster for the opening two Rugby World Cup warm-up matches after sustaining a neck injury. Ireland’s team manager, Paul McNaughton, told the media on August 2 that their centre has been rested from
the opening two warm-up matches due to a minor injury to his neck and shoulder. The manager however, cleared that the injury was of a minor nature and O’Driscoll is being rested to get the best output from him during the global showpiece, starting on September
9.
The 32-year-old has been in his national side since 1999 and has earned an incredible 112 international caps for Ireland. The veteran centre has scored 235 points with the help of 44 tries in his decade long career.
O’Driscoll made his International debut against Australia and later on he asserted his position in the national side and became a formidable part of his team. Since his very first appearance on the international horizon, he has been side-lined from the team
a very few times and remained in the good books of the national selectors. Soon after being deployed into the Irish side, he reached the climax of his career as the national supporters expressed their unshakeable confidence in him by wearing shirts with the
slogans that read ‘we trust in BOD’.
Talking to the media about O’Driscoll’s injury, Ireland’s manager, Paul McNaughton said that, “He's been doing 80% of the work over the last two weeks. I'm not too concerned about him. He's got a problem with his shoulder/neck and he's been getting some
traction on it. But, as I said, he's making progress. He's doing everything except contact up to this week.”
The manager further said that a couple of players is there to replace O’Driscoll in the warm up matches. He quoted Gordon D'Arcy and Stephen Ferris in this regard but meanwhile McNaughton cleared that the pair will also be required to prove fitness. He added
that, “It's a race against time for those two guys but they are making progress. Gordon D'Arcy in particular made a lot of progress last week.”
Ireland will play its first warm up match against Scotland on this weekend.
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