Caelan Doris‘s prospects of taking part in his first British & Irish Lions tour are in doubt due to a shoulder injury he suffered in Leinster’s 37-34 Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Northampton at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.
To compound his and Leinster‘s woes in light of Saturday’s huge setback, the province’s weekly medical bulletin confirmed that “Caelan Doris will have a procedure this week on a shoulder injury and a further assessment will be carried out afterwards.”
The Leinster captain was withdrawn in the 57th minute of the semi-final, nine minutes after scoring a try, and the knowledge of his injury could only have contributed to his palpable sense of deflation in the post-match press conference. Doris was unable to offer his right hand to opponents after the final whistle.
Where do Leinster go next after more Champions Cup heartache?
The extent of the injury will not be ascertained until Tuesday or Wednesday following further consultations with a specialist. More should be known by the time Andy Farrell unveils his Lions playing squad for the summer tour to Australia at Thursday lunchtime.
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At the very least it looks like the Leinster and Ireland number eight will miss the remainder of Leinster’s URC campaign and a cloud now hangs over his availability for this summer’s Lions’ tour, for which he would be considered a likely Test starter and one of the leading candidates to captain the tourists.
Having missed out four years ago, it would be an additionally cruel blow for the 51-time capped Irish captain were he to be ruled out of a first Lions’ tour when nearing the prime of his career, at 27.
Speaking with regard to Doris’ injury, Leinster senior coach Jacques Nienaber said: “Since I have been here, I don’t think he has ever come off in a game except for injury. So, the moment he came off we thought it would be pretty serious. Then he saw a specialist and he is having a procedure sometime this week. That will put more light on the severity of it.
“Hopefully they go in and, fingers crossed, there is not too much structural damage. If there is not too much structural damage – it is tough to say, my physio knowledge is a little bit woozy – but I would say that can be anything between four to eight weeks.
“If there is structural damage it can go more than that, between four and six months, so it depends on what they find when they go in and have a look at it.
“I was more a hip-knee physio. My wife loved shoulders so she is probably more the expert. It is a difficult joint to work with because it is such an unstable joint, if you can put it like that.”
Viewed in that light, it would indeed appear as if Leinster will be without their captain for the URC run-in while he is touch and go for the Lions.
“Yes, that’s why I say fingers crossed. Hopefully for him it is not that bad but you do the assessment and my gut feeling when I saw him come off… I had never seen him come off with an injury so he is a hard man, in my opinion. When he came off my gut was that this doesn’t look good, but that is purely subjective. They will go in and scope and see what is wrong."
Meanwhile, Rob Russell and James Ryan have returned to full training having recovered from injury ahead of Saturday’s BKT United Rugby Championship game with Zebre Parma at Aviva Stadium (5.15pm).
Jordan Larmour, Will Connors and Brian Deeny all remain sidelined indefinitely.
