Fitzgerald out of Six Nations with knee injury

“Luke Fitzgerald has been ruled out of the Six Nations with a medial ligament injury to his knee,” said Ireland’s team manager, Mick Kearney. “He is expected to be out of action for six to eight weeks and at this stage no replacement has been called in.

“He was just doing a tackling drill at the Aviva on Friday, his foot got caught in the grass. It was fairly innocuous but very unfortunate and he’s very unlucky to be out of the Six Nations.”

“He was very upset and probably feared the worst,” said Mick Kearney. “He’d had a very good injury run recently, had a great World Cup and was flying for Leinster.”