Brian O'Driscoll has said he could not re-watch footage of Dan Leavy's 'horrific' knee injury that has ruled him out of the World Cup - and BOD fears that it could end significantly impact his career.
O'Driscoll joined Monday Night Rugby after a hectic weekend of Champions Cup quarter-final action, during which Leavy suffered what Leinster Rugby have since described as a 'complex knee ligament injury'.
"It is a sickening, sickening blow for him. I was watching the game and could see immediately when he got caught that he put his hands up to his face and I knew that it was a bad one.
"The guy who calls back the footage was showing it beside me and I couldn't watch it. I saw it to the point of where the force came against him, and at that point it was nasty. My thoughts are with him - it sounds like a horrendous injury.
"The concern is that it's not just his World Cup potentially gone; when you're talking about that complicated an injury that early on after the incident - potentially there are bigger ramifications about how serious an injury it could be, so I just hope that it is an injury that he can recover from as he has a lot of good years ahead of him."
O'Driscoll spoke about the impact that Leavy's injury could have on the Ireland setup, with Brian believing that the Leinster man was in pole position for Ireland's number seven spot.
"The way that the Six Nations had gone, the way that Sean O'Brien had not been able to rediscover that form of two years ago [...], Josh van der Flier has been unlucky with injuries - if anything, Jordi Murphy is probably the guy that is going to be contesting for the number seven jersey hardest with Leavy. He hasn't really been given that much of a chance with Ulster this season, but when he has played for Ireland, he has been very effective and Joe Schmidt is a big fan of his.
"You did get the sense that we were just waiting for Dan Leavy to get back to full fitness and that he would be the starter for Ireland in the World Cup, the way the last two months have panned out."
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