Jordi Murphy to miss rest of the season

Knee ligament damage will rule Murphy out for at least six months

Ireland’s Jordi Murphy suffers the injury against New Zealand. Dan Sheridan
Ireland’s Jordi Murphy suffers the injury against New Zealand. Dan Sheridan

Ireland team manager Mick Kearney confirmed that the unfortunate Jordi Murphy, a try scorer in the 40-29 victory over New Zealand at Soldier Field, had torn the ACL in his left knee and will be out for between six and nine months.

Murphy, who scored Ireland’s first try of five on the day from a lineout maul, suffered the damage after 25-minutes and was replaced by Josh van der Flier. Kearney confirmed that there are no further injury concerns arising from the match other than the usual bumps and bruises.

The original 34-man Irish squad selected ahead of the test, less Murphy reconvened at Carton House on Monday after and they were supplemented by a further six players, Niyi Adeolokun, Darren Sweetnam, Tiernan O'Halloran, Dave Kilcoyne, Jack O'Donoghue and Dan Leavy ahead of Saturday's game against Canada at the Aviva stadium.

Sean O'Brien, Peter O'Mahony, Iain Henderson and Paddy Jackson are all part of the extended squad.

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Kearney explained: “We can confirm that Jordi Murphy damaged an ACL in his left leg and will be ruled out of action for between six and nine months. The rest of the match-day squad is in good shape following a very physical encounter but there is a fair bit of fatigue amongst them.

“The remaining 33 players will train this week and a further six players have been added - Niyi Adeolokun, Tiernan O’Halloran, Dave Kilcoyne, Jack O’Donoghue, Darren Sweetnam and Dan Leavy.

“Jonathan Sexton is good, he cramped up a bit after 60 minutes. He had not played a lot of rugby for the previous six or seven weeks so he came off with a bit of cramp. But he’s fine. Paddy Jackson is back in the squad.”

John O'Sullivan

John O'Sullivan

John O'Sullivan is an Irish Times sports writer