Munster have anxious wait for full assessment on Craig Casey's knee injury
Craig Casey Game Dejected The picture:©inpho/dan Injury: munster’s Sheridan After
Munster are bracing for bad news when injuries to Craig Casey and Thaakir Abrahams are assessed on Monday following a costly Champions Cup defeat at Castres.
Munster’s mournful return to Limerick was underscored by the sight of scrum-half Casey on crutches following a potentially serious knee injury sustained 30 minutes into the 16-14 pool defeat at Stade Pierre Fabre last Friday night.
With wing Abrahams suffering a dislocated shoulder, loosehead prop Dian Bleuler failing to return from a head knock and Peter O’Mahony receiving a stud on the back of a calf, the attrition rate in Castres was high. Munster were also forced to remove replacement front-rowers Diarmuid Barron for a Head Injury Assessment and Dave Kilcoyne due to cramp after the veteran loosehead made an unexpectedly early reappearance off the bench following almost 12 months out when Bleuler went for his HIA on 22 minutes.
Yet Ireland international Casey appears to be the chief concern as Munster look ahead to this Friday night’s trip to Belfast for their URC derby against Ulster.
"Craig's is pretty serious, he's on crutches,” interim head coach Ian Costello said. “We don't know the extent of that yet but you could see he left the pitch in a bit of pain.
“It looks like his studs got caught in the ground but he’s come off on crutches. He was sore coming off the field. I don’t know any more than that at the moment.” Costello added: "Thaakir, in that tackle, it dislocated his shoulder, or it certainly popped out.
Killer was cramp at the end. Peter got a stud in the calf so hopefully that's okay.
"As always, you come to a place like this, it's a punishing, attritional performance and a few guys we'll have to watch pretty closely over the next couple of days to see if they're good for next week."
Returning to Abraham’s injury and the suggestion that it was caused by a cheap shot, Costello said: “His shoulder is sore. They (the local TV broadcaster) cut the feed after that tackle. It’s frustrating but when you concede 17 penalties you’ve got to look at yourselves.”
Despite the gloom, Munster still have some control of their qualification fate for the Champions Cup knockout rounds with six points from the two games in the book and Saracens visiting Thomond Park on January 11 followed by a third trip to Northampton Saints in as many seasons seven days later.
"The next one is critical, isn't it?” Costello said. “Your games at home in this group is the key. You'd like to think if we beat Saracens we're into the knockout stages but again that's a big if. Saracens are a quality side and we've two massive games between now and then and that's where our focus is for now."
A December 27 sell-out Thomond Park derby with Leinster also falls before the return to European pool action and Costello placed as much emphasis on the URC campaign as the Champions Cup bid.
“We still have to go up next week and go to Ulster, and four points there would be gold in terms of league positions. So, again we won’t look to Leinster. That will be a great occasion on the 27th but we need a serious performance in Belfast next Friday night.”