Dawson takes over effort to secure Fitzgerald contract

LUKE FITZGERALD will not be able to resume his playing career, possibly until the new year following recent neck/shoulder surgery but a priority outside of his rehabilitation will be to secure his future.

Negotiations between the 24-year-old player’s representative, Fintan Drury, and the IRFU reached an impasse and the offer of a central Irish contract – it is believed to include a reduction in salary from €280,000 to €200,000 – was withdrawn.

Leinster chief executive Mick Dawson has taken over the discussions with the player, who will be out of action for between 26 and 32 weeks following a successful operation. He has suffered an horrendous run of injuries in the last 18 months or so. Fitzgerald’s current contract expires at the end of the month.

Dawson, when asked if he was now working on hammering out a new deal, replied: “Correct. His contract is up on the June 30th. I understand that the operation went very well and the doctors are pleased. He has a 26- to 32-week rehab period and we have a duty of care to make sure that goes right. Hopefully he will be working with us under our tutelage and getting back out on the pitch and ready for action again.

“Luke has been with us from the age of 18 . . . we would hope that he would be with us for a lot longer. He has been a fantastic player, will be a fantastic player and he’s very, very popular with the crowd. He has served us very well and we’re acutely aware of that. We want to make sure we can nurse him through this injury, get him back on the pitch and hopefully get him back playing for Leinster and Ireland in early 2013. We are in discussion with his agent Fintan Drury and I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t sorted out sooner rather than later.”

Dawson also confirmed Leinster had permission to recruit a non-Irish qualified secondrow and that they were in discussion with a number of players.