Ireland captain Paul O’Connell pulled out of the World Cup and ended his international career on Tuesday as Sean O’Brien faced a rugby judge for punching a French opponent.
Ireland can ill afford to lose either player as their list of absentees grows ahead of their quarter-final against Argentina on Sunday.
The Irish Rugby Football Union paid tribute to the 35-year-old O’Connell as “a leader, a warrior, a gentleman” as they announced that he would undergo surgery this week on a hamstring injury suffered in the 24-9 final Pool D victory over France.
“Paul will not play again at Rugby World Cup 2015 and his time out of the game will depend on the outcome of the surgery,” a statement added.
Leinster’s Mike McCarthy has been called up to the Ireland squad and was to arrive in Cardiff on Tuesday.
O’Connell, who has 108 caps, was stretchered off at half-time of the bitterly fought match at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and spent the night in hospital.
His future coach at Toulon, Bernard Laporte, has said he expects O’Connell would be out for around three months.
O’Connell’s absence comes hot on the heels of flanker Peter O’Mahony, who was ruled out after suffering knee ligament damage in the brutal victory over France.
Influential centre Jared Payne also returned home last week with a foot fracture.
And there are doubts over fly-half Jonny Sexton, who went off after 25 minutes of the France game with a groin injury.
– Punch hearing –
Ireland’s attention has turned swiftly to the fate of flanker O’Brien, man-of-the-match against France, who appears before a disciplinary official on Tuesday for hitting lock Pascal Pape 23 seconds into the French game.
The case was being heard by an Australian official, Terry Willis. A decision could be announced later Tuesday.
O’Brien was not punished by referee Nigel Owens but was cited on Monday under a law on “striking” opponents as images of the blow to Pape’s stomach flooded social media.
Pape fell to his knees and needed two minutes of treatment before carrying on. Furious French coach Philippe Saint-Andre labelled it as an “assault”.
Pape has a history of confrontation with Ireland. He was banned for 10 weeks after kneeing Ireland No 8 Jamie Heaslip in the back, resulting in fractured vertebrae, during a Six Nations game in February.
Saint-Andre questioned why referee Owens and the Television Match Official (TMO) did not act straight away.
“I hope that next time the TMO will really do his job.
“Since the beginning of the competition, on whatever matter is concerned, try or injury, we return to a review of the images.
“In this case they do no such thing.”
Ireland coach Joe Schmidt had argued after Sunday’s match that O’Brien had not landed a “closed fist” punch on Pape.
World Rugby has been keen to clamp down on violent play.
Marcelo Bosch of Argentina — who play Ireland on Sunday — was also to appear before a hearing on Tuesday for a ‘spear tackle’ during his country’s Pool C 64-19 victory over Namibia on Sunday.
Bosch had only been on the pitch a few minutes when he was sent to the sin bin for the lifting tackle — which sees an opponent fall headfirst to the ground — on Theuns Kotze.