Jacques Nienaber says he expects Ireland's star hooker, Dan Sheehan, to be fit and ready for the 2025 Six Nations campaign.
Sheehan, one of the best forwards in world rugby, suffered a knee injury in the win over South Africa last month and has since undergone surgery. It had been feared that Sheehan would miss the season, but Nienaber has given a more positive update than expected.
"I think so. He got injured in July, so yes, yes," said the South African when asked if Sheehan would return for the Six Nations. "If everything goes well, that’s six months, and normally, in my opinion, ACLs are between six and nine months.
"The majority will fall into that time-frame bracket. Then you get the odd ones, where there are setbacks.
"I would say 80% is between six and nine months."
Adding more on what happened, the Leinster coach gave an insight into Dan Sheehan's injury and claimed that Sheehan was lucky it was just the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and not several parts of the knee.
Pretoria , South Africa, July 6, 2024: Rónan Kelleher, centre, and Dan Sheehan of Ireland leave the pitch after the first test between South Africa and Ireland at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images) )This was caused by a coming together by himself and Siya Collisi, the Springboks captain.
"I think Siya [Kolisi, Springboks captain] was just driven to get back, and fair play; I think Sheeno looks the same. It’s just how much damage is done.
"You obviously do your cruciate, but if you don’t do meniscus or you don’t do lateral and medial ligaments in conjunction with the ACL, and you literally just have the ACL, I think it’s a much better prognosis. That's what it looks like for Dan."
In other injury news, Nienaber gave an update about scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park.
Gibson-Park missed Ireland’s South Africa tour due to a hamstring issue but is set to return to full training in the coming weeks.
“I’m not sure if he will be in the mix for one of the warm-up games—I don’t think so—but I think he will be introduced into training sessions within the next week or two,” Nienaber added to the Irish Independent.
Leinster's next match will be the United Rugby Championship opener against Edinburgh on Friday, September 20.
