By Simon Lewis in Port Elizabeth
Robbie Henshaw is set to see a consultant back in Dublin over the knee injury that cut short his tour to South Africa in last Saturday’s second Test defeat to the Springboks.
The Leinster-bound Connacht back, one of Ireland’s midfield linchpins under head coach Joe Schmidt over the last three seasons, suffered the injury during the second half of the 32-26 loss at Ellis Park and left the Irish squad on Sunday, Henshaw heading home as his team-mates left Johannesburg for Port Elizabeth to prepare for this Saturday’s series-deciding Test.
The Irish management will not call in anyone from their standby list to replace the 23-year-old with Luke Marshall or Jared Payne the most likely candidates from the existing squad to slot in at outside centre.
If Payne were to be switched from full back to number 13, his Ulster team-mate Marshall would most likely start at inside centre, with Connacht’s Tiernan O’Halloran moving in at 15 following his Test debut off the bench last weekend.
Keeping Payne at full back, alternatively, could see Marshall in at 13 to partner last week’s starting 12 Stuart Olding in another all-Ulster midfield.
“Robbie Henshaw has returned home and will see a consultant about his knee in Dublin, just to assess the severity of his injury,” Ireland team manager Mick Kearney said in Port Elizabeth on Monday. “Apart from Robbie all 31 players are expected to train for the rest of the week.
“Rhys Ruddock did get a couple of stitches above his eye but he’ll be fine.
“Lads underwent a good recovery session in the Indian Ocean this morning and have the rest of the day off apart from a walk-through this afternoon. They will then train as normal tomorrow morning, down day Wednesday, train again Thursday and then captain’s run at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium on Friday.”
The Springboks, meanwhile, have ongoing concerns at No.8 where starter Duane Vermeulen (elbow) and his replacement last Saturday, try scorer Warren Whiteley (shoulder) are both trying to recover from knocks.
They and replacement loosehead Trevor Nyakane (ankle) all saw specialists on Monday morning with head coach Allister Coetzee awaiting their verdicts on scans the players underwent.
“They won’t be training today,” Coetzee said of the trio on Monday. “There’s a big possibility that Warren will be training this afternoon. Obviously no contact, but I don’t think Duane or Trevor will participate in training this afternoon.”
