Jack Crowley could miss Ireland’s Nations Championship tour with blood vessel issue

Jack Crowley could miss all or part of Ireland’s inaugural Nations Championship summer fixtures against Australia, Japan and New Zealand in July if he fails to recover from a blood vessel issue that sidelined him towards the end of the season.

“Jack, I don’t anticipate he’ll be involved in the early part of the internationals,” said Munster head coach Clayton McMillan in an interview with the Irish Examiner.

“He’s got a blood vessel issue in the back of his leg, which is good that something’s been identified. He’s got a plan around how to manage that, but it literally is just a very obscure, unfortunate thing that was really hard to diagnose.

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“He’s got a diagnosis now, he has a plan around how to get it back, and I’m just not sure medically what the return to play protocols around that are. It’s not like a concussion or a broken arm or leg, it’s something that could literally solve itself overnight, or it might take a month or two. And that’s not being cryptic, that’s just the nature of what he’s going through.”

On the fitness of Tadhg Beirne, McMillan confirmed the Munster captain “is back running. I don’t anticipate that he’ll have any issues.”

A group of players from three of the provinces excluding Leinster are expected to train in the high-performance centre over the weekend ahead of Andy Farrell’s Irish squad announcement for the Tests next Wednesday.

Ireland will play Australia in Sydney on July 4th before moving up the New South Wales coast to Newcastle to face Japan on July 11th. They will take on New Zealand in Auckland on July 18th.