O’BRIEN OUT OF WC THROUGH INJURY
REUTERS - Ireland’s Sean O’brien will miss September’s Rugby World Cup after he was ruled out for six months with a hip injury, his club Leinster said on Sunday.
He is the second flanker Ireland have lost to injury for the tournament in Japan. O’brien, who missed Saturday’s PRO14 final win over Glasgow, is to undergo surgery and joins fellow backrow Dan Leavy on the sidelines after his Leinster teammate was ruled out with a serious knee injury last month. The two-time British and Irish Lions player, who featured in Ireland’s last two World Cup campaigns, struggled for form in this year’s Six Nations but was likely to be one of the backrow options for the tournament in Leavy’s absence. Ireland badly missed Leavy’s dynamism during this year’s disappointing Six Nations, the 24-year-old open side blighted by injury all season following his breakthrough in 2018 when he was one of the grand slam winners’ best players.