Leinster head coach Jacques Nienaber fears Caelan Doris has suffered a “severe” shoulder harm, which seems to have thrown his possibilities of making the British & Irish Lions squad into severe doubt.
Doris, 27, is a number one candidate alongside England’s Maro Itoje to captain the Lions on their tour of Australia. However Doris was compelled off injured in Leinster’s Champions Cup semifinal defeat to Northampton on Saturday.
Leinster have confirmed Doris’ harm requires surgical procedure, and he’s set to bear the process on Tuesday or Wednesday. All this leaves loads of uncertainty over Doris’ health and future availability forward of Thursday’s Lions squad announcement.
“He noticed a specialist and I feel there’s some additional investigation that must be finished,” Nienaber informed Irish media of Doris. “Fingers crossed that issues aren’t as unhealthy as we expect it’s, however within the final couple of months that I’ve labored with Caelan, he isn’t a man that essentially comes off the pitch with harm.
“So after I subjectively noticed him coming off the pitch on Saturday, I assumed in my thoughts: ‘That have to be fairly severe.’
“We’ll most likely know extra within the again finish of the week, however my intestine, and it is solely intestine, says that I feel it may be severe, however fingers crossed it may not be. Fingers crossed they go in and there may be not an excessive amount of structural injury. My official information is slightly bit woozy, but when there is not structural injury, possibly 4 to 6 weeks. If there may be, it might go as much as something as huge as six months.”
If it is 4 weeks, then Doris will miss the remainder of Leinster’s season however could be match for the Lions’ first match towards Argentina on June 20. However any issues and structural injury would result in an extended spell on the sidelines which might all however rule him out of the tour.
This is able to come as a bitter blow each for Doris and the Lions. Doris missed the final Lions tour by concussion and was extensively perceived to be a nailed-on starter for this summer season’s tour.
However this shoulder harm has positioned his probabilities in jeopardy and sees Itoje emerge because the clear frontrunner to captain the Lions towards the Wallabies.
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– NEWS: Eire captain Caelan Doris to bear surgical procedure
