LONDON (AFP) – Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said veteran prop Cian Healy was “devastated” after missing out on Ireland’s Rugby World Cup squad due to injury.
Leinster’s Healy, 35, limped off the field in Saturday’s narrow 17-13 victory over Samoa at Bayonne in their final warm-up game before the tournament.
Healy was playing in his 125th international and had been hoping to feature in a fourth World Cup.
“He’ll be out for a spell of time that won’t be right, unfortunately, for Cian and for us, certainly for the start of the competition,” Farrell told reporters.
“We’ll see how his rehab goes during it, you’d never know towards the back end if he could be a replacement or not.
“He’s devastated as we are as a group for him,” he added.
Munster’s Jeremy Loughman takes loose-head Healy’s spot in Farrell’s set-up, captained by 38-year-old Johnny Sexton.
Sexton missed all of Ireland’s three warm-ups this month due to a ban after making remarks to officials following May’s Champions Cup final loss to La Rochelle.
“I made a mistake in the heat of the moment, obviously I was very emotional on the day not being part of what I had mapped out at the start of the year,” Sexton told reporters.
“It has been incredibly frustrating to have to sit and watch.”
