Facing one of the longest and most unappealing days of his life, the expectation always was that even if he was cleared of allegations of biting by a judicial hearing in the morning, an afternoon scan on his injured left ankle would spell the end of his tour. And so, alas, it came to pass.
Having been cleared in the morning, the MRI scan “revealed significant ligament damage around the ankle. The recovery time is expected to exceed the duration of the tour”, according to a Lions statement and, accordingly, Healy will return home tomorrow.
Head coach Warren Gatland said: “Firstly, our thoughts are with Cian. It has been a day of mixed emotions for him after being quite rightly being cleared of foul play but then the scan revealing the extent of the damage to his ankle. He has made a big contribution on and off the field in the last two weeks and we wish him well in his recovery.”
Healy had suffered the injury in the first half of the Lions victory over the Western Force in Perth on Wednesday, but although an X-ray revealed he had not suffered any fracture, the likelihood of ligament damage remained, on top of which he was cited for allegedly biting Force scrumhalf Brett Sheahan late that night.
You wouldn't have wished the ensuing two days on anybody, as first Healy travelled with the remainder of the squad on Thursday – with his left ankle in a ski boot – before facing the judicial hearing at 9am local time yesterday morning and the scan at 3pm local time.
Ruled out
Compounding the Lions' frontrow problems, Gethin Jenkins was again ruled out of action yesterday after suffering tightness in his calf during the captain's run. The only other loosehead in the squad, Mako Vunipola, was promoted to the starting line-up, with Dan Cole alongside Adam Jones as a second tighthead on the bench.
Following on from Alex Corbisiero’s arrival today, Scottish loosehead Ryan Grant has also been called up from Scotland’s tour of South Africa and will arrive in Brisbane tomorrow.
Earlier in the day Healy had been cleared of acts contrary to good sportsmanship, following a two-and-a-half-hour hearing. According to an Australian RFU statement, the case Judicial Officer, Nigel Hampton QC, found insufficient evidence to support the allegations and cleared Healy.
In his findings Mr Hampton stated that on the balance of probabilities he was not satisfied that Healy bit Force scrumhalf Brett Sheehan.
'Deliberate bite'
"There is no conclusive video evidence of the incident and post-match it was not possible to distinguish any discernible bite marks outside of the 'regular' marks usually found following a rugby match," Mr Hampton said in his findings. "I cannot find proven on the balance of probabilities that there was a deliberate bite here, and the citing complaint is not upheld."
According to the statement, Hampton determined that during the tackle Sheehan’s arm may have come in contact with Healy’s mouth and due to the pressure of the tackle it is likely that unavoidable contact between Healy’s mouth and teeth and Sheehan’s arm occurred.
In ensuing statements, Andy Irvine expressed the Lions’ pleasure at the comment, adding: “We always believed that Cian had done nothing wrong and had not acted maliciously in any way.”
Healy himself expressed his relief, adding: “I was naturally very disappointed that there was a citing in the first place. I always maintained that nothing happened and that I had done nothing illegal. The opposition player’s arm hit me. It is as simple as that.”
Unfortunately, his day was far from over.
