Van Graan refuses to speculate on extent of Joey Carbery's hamstring injury
Johann van Graan refused to speculate on the extent of Joey Carbery’s new hamstring injury as Munster turned their focus back to the Guinness PRO14 campaign and the visit of Cardiff Blues to Cork on Friday night.
First-choice fly-half Carbery lasted just 35 minutes into his comeback from a six-week hamstring lay-off having been injured on Ireland duty during the Six Nations. He was forced to give way to Tyler Bleyendaal during last Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Edinburgh at Murrayfield and watched from the dugout as his replacement nailed the crucial touchline conversion that handed Munster a 17-13 victory to set-up a European semi-final with Saracens in Coventry on Saturday, April 20.
Openside flanker Jack O’Donoghue was another first-half casualty at Murrayfield after failing his Head Injury Assessment but while he will go through his Return To Play protocols this week before resuming his comeback from a knee injury, the immediate prospects for Carbery’s recovery are less clearcut.
Head coach van Graan was unable to give a definitive answer today on the status of his playmaker’s latest injury.
“It’s still very early on Joey but as soon as we’ve got an update we’ll give some more information,” van Graan said.
“Obviously it’s his hamstring and I’m not going to put a timeframe on it at this stage.”
The Munster boss said there were sore bodies throughout his squad following Saturday’s physical encounter with Edinburgh which saw his side defend for long periods and put in 200 tackles over 83 minutes..
“If you just look at the ball in play, something like 44 minutes,” van Graan said. “An incredible game of rugby, both sides gave it their all, the collisions that went into that game were pretty big and we’ll have to recover pretty soon for Friday night.
“Very glad that it’s finished. Looking forward to a big challenge ahead on Friday night and we start again this week and a semi-final to look forward to in three weeks but two pretty important PRO14 games ahead against Cardiff and Treviso.”
