Caelan Doris could miss the British & Irish Lions series in Australia as the Leinster captain prepares for a “procedure” on his shoulder injury.
The Ireland skipper has been touted as a potential Lions captain for this summer’s tour of Australia. Lions head coach Andy Farrell is due to name his squad for the series on Thursday.
Doris was hurt during his province’s 37-34 Investec Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Northampton Saints last week.
The 27-year-old has been ruled out of Saturday’s Vodacom URC round 17 clash at home to Zebre.
“Caelan Doris will have a procedure this week on a shoulder injury and a further assessment will be carried out afterwards,” a Leinster statement said.
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Leinster senior coach Jacques Nienaber told reporters he feared Doris’ injury was serious. “He saw a specialist and I think there’s some further investigation that needs to be done,” he said.
“Fingers crossed that things aren’t as bad as we think it is, but in the last couple of months that I’ve worked with Caelan, he’s not a guy that necessarily comes off the pitch with injury.
“So when I subjectively saw him coming off the pitch on Saturday, I thought in my mind, ’that must be quite serious’.
“We’ll probably know more in the back end of the week, but my gut – and it’s only gut – says that I think it might be serious, but fingers crossed it might not be.”
Farrell’s Lions begin their three-match Test series against the Wallabies on 19 July in Brisbane before playing in Melbourne a week later and finishing in Sydney on 2 August.
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