Ulster provide Ethan McIlroy injury update after early exit against Munster
Ulster fullback Ethan McIlroy suffered a facial fracture and a concussion on Friday night against Munster at the Kingspan Stadium, his club have confirmed in their latest squad update.
The 23-year-old was knocked unconscious on 14 minutes as he dived over the line to score a try against the reigning United Rugby Championship winners. Opposite man Shane Daly was making the cover tackle to prevent the try, and was subsequently yellow carded.
McIlroy was treated at Royal Victoria Hospital Emergency Department, where he was discharged later that evening.
Ulster have not given a timescale as to how long the fullback will be out of action for, with fixtures against the Lions, Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh coming in the next three weeks before the Champions Cup begins.
Dan McFarland’s side went on to win 21-14, leaving Ulster in fourth place in the URC standings.
“I was pleased with a lot of what we did,” McFarland said to the Ulster website after the match.
“We showed real attacking intent, we were dangerous for long periods of the first half but we found ourselves at 0-14 down, on the back of their scrum getting control of us and some inaccuracy.
“They are the unbeaten champions, to come back from that is a pretty big ask with the quality Munster have. I was really proud of some of the rugby we played, it would have been nice when we got 7 points up we showed some more composure, but maybe the guys wanted to show their fighting spirit for the remaining five minutes of the game! They certainly showed that, it’s a credit to Munster that they will never say die. Munster battered away at the end and it took every ounce to stop them.”
Latest Comments
The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
Go to comments