As expected, Jeremy Davidson's worst fears were confirmed yesterday when the keyhole surgery performed on his left knee revealed that the 23-year-old Irish lock had sustained a ruptured cruciate ligament. He will thus miss the entire international season.
It is the latest, but by far the most distressing injury to afflict the Irish squad in the run-up to the match against New Zealand on November 15th.
Jim Staples, Simon Geoghegan, and David Corkery have already been ruled out of the game and there are also serious doubts about Richard Wallace and Dylan O'Grady, but in Davidson's case, he will now miss the pre-Christmas games against the All Blacks, Canada and Italy, as well as the Five Nations campaign.
His long-term friend, coach and mentor at first, Dungannon and now, London Irish, Willie Anderson, said that Davidson will have an operation "in four weeks, when the trauma of his knee has calmed down. He's in tremendously good hands. The surgeon, John Hillindale, is one of the top guys in London and he'll be performing the operation.
"Every operation he's done has been a total success. The worstcase scenario is that Jeremy will be back training in four months time and back playing in six months time. Jeremy Davidson always has been a very quick healer."
At a push then, the Lions second-row might make a return to action toward the end of the season for London Irish and thus be available for Ireland's summer tour of South Africa.
Still, it is "a shocking blow", according to Anderson, not only for the player, but also for his club and country. "He's an integral part of the whole scene. He's just got to accept the thing, do the work and come back 100 per cent, probably even stronger than he was. It is, after all the same injury which Gascoigne and Shearer had.
"He was in a fair bit of pain and he's fairly low," said Anderson after speaking to the player at his hospital bed last night. Accepting the fickle nature of sport after Davidson had scaled the peak of the game during the summer, Anderson added: "You get the highs and the lows in this game, and sometimes, you become a better person. I've no doubt Jeremy will."
