Henderson sidelined until Christmas

Rob Henderson has confirmed he will miss the first half of the 2001-2002 season after undergoing surgery on his knee cartilage last Friday night in London. Although the 28-year-old centre hopes to return to action sooner than the six months estimated by his medical specialists, Henderson concedes he will definitely miss Ireland's re-arranged 2001 Six Nations games against Scotland, Wales and England.

Almost certainly he will miss Ireland's November programme of friendlies against Samoa (to be confirmed), the All Blacks and Canada as well, and he will be sidelined for the first half of Munster's season after agreeing to join them from Wasps prior to the Lions tour of Australia.

He had intended to make himself available for Munster by the end of August but will instead now miss the province's entire Celtic League programme as well as their opening three European Cup pool matches against Castres, Harlequins and Bridgend, not to mention Young Munster's opening chunk of games in the All-Ireland League.

"I'm gutted. I was really looking forward to playing with Munster," said Henderson yesterday. "This is the worst injury of my career and while I'd be over the moon if I could be back before Christmas I'm going to miss an awful lot of rugby with Munster and Ireland."

Henderson revealed the damage to both his bone and ligaments had been partially the result of wear and tear, and also "a bang on the knee in the first Test" for the Lions against Australia. "I had the knee x-rayed after the first test and it showed there was some damage there but that basically every player has got it to some degree.

" I knew I'd need an operation after the tour but that I could get through the series with injections (painkillers) before the second and third Tests, and would then need two to three weeks to recover. It was on that understanding I went ahead and played in the second and third Tests. It was only after the operation last Friday I learned how bad the problem had become."

Henderson is being facilitated in his rehabilitation by Nigel Melville at Wasps, who has given the Irish centre the use of his old club's facilities and their physio, which he hopes to start availing of by this weekend.

Justin Harrison has been left out of Australia's squad for Saturday's Tri-Nations Test against South Africa in Pretoria. The squad was reduced to 26 players yesterday, with ACT Brumbies pair, lock Harrison and injured centre James Holbeck (hamstring), to be left behind. Lock David Giffin returns from injury forcing new coach Eddie Jones to omit Harrison.

Australia Squad: Forwards - N Stiles, B Young, M Foley, B Cannon, R Moore, B Darwin, D Giffin, J Eales (capt), M Connors, O Finegan, M Cockbain, G Smith, P Waugh, T Kefu, D Lyons; Backs - G Gregan, C Whitaker, E Flatley, M Edmonds, J Roff, N Grey, G Bond, D Herbert, A Walker, C Latham, M Burke.