Knee injury rules Ireland's Jordi Murphy out of action for six to nine months
Ireland's Jordi Murphy has been ruled out of action for six to nine months
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Ireland flanker Jordi Murphy has been ruled out of action for up to nine months after he sustained a knee injury during his team's historic victory over New Zealand in Chicago on Saturday.
The 25-year-old set the tone for Ireland's 40-29 victory by scoring the opening try for his team in the ninth minute but was later replaced by Josh Van der Flier 16 minutes later.
Meanwhile, Ireland have made six additions to the squad with Niyi Adeolokun, Tiernan O'Halloran, Dave Kilcoyne, Jack O'Donoghue, Darren Sweetnam and Dan Leavy, all joining the squad on Monday.
A statement released by Ireland Rugby's official website confirmed the news.
"Jordi Murphy leaves the squad after damaging the ACL in his left knee which rules him out of action for between six to nine months.
"There were no other injury concerns to report from national camp following the game in Soldier Field.
"Niyi Adeolokun, Tiernan O'Halloran (Connacht), Dave Kilcoyne, Jack O'Donoghue, Darren Sweetnam (Munster) and Dan Leavy (Leinster) have joined the squad today at Carton House."
Meanwhile, winger Andrew Trimble said it was tough for the team to stay motivated playing the All Blacks prior to the Saturday's encounter after not having defeated them in the last 111 years.
"It is so difficult to go out with a positive mindset and believe it is possible to beat the All Blacks, because hardly anybody does it," he said.
"The All Blacks just hammer everyone they play against, they are a class side, and you are wrestling with yourself mentally to go out and try to convince yourself you are good enough to do it.
"Even when we had the lead there were doubts that it could unravel.
"In the back of your head you are going 'hang in, please, hang in' for 40 minutes."
However, he urged the team not to be over confident after the historic triumph and wanted them to carry on the momentum for the rest of the autumn internationals.
"It would be a mistake to get carried away and think we are better than we are," he said.
"The only reason why we were good enough to beat the All Blacks is because we left no stone unturned, we fully bought into the game plan, looked at our set pieces, our breakdown, our shape.
"We did so much homework for the game.
"We're going to have to do even more hard work, because New Zealand are going to produce a bigger performance.
"There is going to be a big backlash."
