Ireland's Conor Murray 'lucky' to avoid eye damage against England
Tuesday 1 March 2016 17:05, UK
Ireland's Conor Murray will be fit for the Six Nations tie with Italy in Dublin on Saturday week, despite suffering a bad eye injury against England last weekend.
The scrum-half received eight stitches around his eye after being kicked in the face accidentally by full-back Mike Brown in the 21-10 defeat at Twickenham.
Murray sat out training on Tuesday but is expected to face the Azzurri at the Aviva Stadium on March 12 after escaping serious injury against the English.
Brown has avoided censure after being deemed to have legitimately attempted to kick the ball clear at the ruck when catching the Munster No 9 in the face while he lay on the ground following a tackle.
"Conor's got a split next to his eye, he's had eight stitches but he's grand," said Ireland assistant coach Richie Murphy.
"He didn't train today, we're just looking after him a little bit. He's obviously a little bit bumped up, he got a bit of treatment in that game, so it's a case of looking after him.
"He was lucky obviously it was just in the corner of the eye, but he's fine and he'll be ready for next week."
Ulster centre Jared Payne has returned to training and should be fit for the match after damaging a hamstring in the 10-9 loss to France last month.
"Jared did a full session today, not with the team but with the fitness guys and the medics," said Murphy, who confirmed Ireland have no further fresh injury concerns. "He came through that fine and it looks like he'll be fully fit to start next week."
Ireland, champions for the past two years, are out of the running for three-in-a-row after failing to chalk up a victory in their opening three games of the campaign and tighthead prop Mike Ross says only maximum points from their remaining two games will lift the gloom.
The Leinster stalwart also insisted Ireland had no problem with Brown's unwitting part in the injury to Murray.
"We want to finish on a high, and two wins - against Italy and Scotland - is the only acceptable outcome now," said Ross.
On Brown, he added: "If the ball's exposed, you're going to try to get at it by any means necessary. You can always stick a foot through and kick it out.
"It's a part of the game and probably a bit unfortunate that Brown's heel caught Conor there. I don't think he was trying to do that and there's no rule against it. If you can mess up the opposition ball you'll do that."
