Injury crisis mounts for Connacht ahead of clash with Harlequins

Date Published: 08-Dec-2010

STEPHEN GLENNON

CONNACHT Coach Eric Elwood is facing a major injury crisis this week, with no less than 15 players carrying knocks of varying degrees of severity ahead of the province’s Amlin European Cup clash against London side, Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop on Sunday (5:45pm).

Two positions are of particular concern to Elwood, namely hooker and outside centre. Ireland international hooker Sean Cronin sustained a knee injury in training late last week, while Adrian Flavin (thumb) only got the cast removed from his hand in the last number of days.

“Adrian just got his cast off, so he is definitely out,” said Elwood, who will look to Furbo native Dermot Murphy to fill the No. 2 jersey should Cronin fail to make it. “We thought he (Flavin) might be lucky this weekend, but Fla’ won’t be available until, maybe, the following week.

“Sean Cronin has a bit of a knee problem, which developed at the end of last week in training. There has been a bit of internal swelling at the back of the knee, so we are hoping that will settle down. So, Sean is being monitored and hopefully he will be back in training later in the week. We will give him as much time as possible for the injury to settle down, before we make a call on him.”

The No. 13 position is also a major concern for the Connacht management. Niva Ta’auso (cheek) and Eoin Griffin (finger) are both still out and while fly-half Ian Keatley proved a competent replacement in this berth against Edinburgh, he is also in a race to be fit after picking up a calf injury.“Ian has a tear in his calf. He had an MRI Scan last week.

To be fair to him, he has been monitoring it fairly well and Foxie (Keith Fox, physiotherapist) is minding him as well. So, we are also not going to make a call on Ian until later in the week.”

Indeed, Connacht are extremely tight in the backs for this weekend’s game, with scrum half Conor O’Loughlin (hamstring), wingers Fionn Carr (glutes), Liam Bibo (groin), Tiernan O’Halloran (knee), Darragh Fanning (hamstring) and centre Shane Monaghan (ankle) all on the treatment table.