Fitzgerald out for four to six months

RUGBY NEWS ROUND-UP:THE IRFU medical team last night confirmed that Luke Fitzgerald suffered the misfortune of a ruptured lateral collateral ligament that will require surgical repair and intensive post-operative rehabilitation.

Fitzgerald, who suffered the injury in the second-half of Sunday’s draw with Australia after an “awkward collision,” is scheduled for surgery at the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry today with a projected recovery period of four to six months.

It is a serious blow for the 22-year-old who was signed for Leinster directly from school in Blackrock College in 2006 and his metoric rise through the ranks of professionalism peaked this summer when selected to face South Africa for the Lions.

Keith Earls replaced Fitzgerald on 54 minutes on Sunday and is expected to come into the team ahead of Saturday’s match against Fiji (kick-off 5.15pm) at the RDS, although Ireland coach Declan Kidney could make several changes when he announces his team this afternoon with Jonny Sexton expected to earn his first cap.

Fourteen players, largely from the A team that beat Tonga last Friday in Ravenhill, including Shane Horgan, Andrew Trimble and Gordon D’Arcy, all candidates to come into the starting XV, have been added to the training camp.

The players called up are: Tony Buckley, D’Arcy, John Fogarty, Chris Henry, Horgan, Denis Hurley, Felix Jones, Seán O’Brien, Devin Toner, Trimble, Brett Wilkinson, Fergus McFadden, Kevin McLaughlin and Peter Stringer.

Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll has been made the strong favourite by the bookmakers to be named the IRB world player of the year after Ireland face South Africa in Croke Park on November 28th. The Irish captain’s position has certainly been strengthened by the glaring omission of the Springboks’ breakthrough performer in 2009 Heinrich Brüssow.

The flanker’s countryman, scrumhalf Flourie du Preez, is included in the seven-man shortlist and appears to be O’Driscoll’s main competition for the prize previously won by an Irishman, Keith Wood, back in its inaugural year of 2001.

O’Driscoll’s Leinster team-mate Jamie Heaslip, a junior player of the year nominee back in 2004, has also been nominated but is a 10/1 outside shot despite a hugely consistent season that saw him become the Lions Test number eight.

The other four short-listed players are Australian outhalf Matt Giteau, New Zealand captain Richie McCaw – despite the 2006 winner missing a chunk of the season due to injury – Springbok fullback Frans Steyn and, most surprisingly, England’s Tom Croft.

The panel of judges – Will Greenwood, Gavin Hastings, Raphael Ibanez, Francois Pienaar, Agustin Pichot, Scott Quinnell, Tana Umaga, Paul Wallace and convenor John Eales watched over 60 hours of action from 46 matches, awarding points to the three players they thought stood out in each match, explained an IRB press release.