Haney and McMahon latest Ireland injury concerns

BBC News

5 days ago

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand has confirmed forwards Edel McMahon and Christy Haney were unavailable for Saturday's World Cup warm-up match against Canada because of injury. Bemand will name his 32-player squad for the tournament in England on Monday. Ireland are already without forwards Erin King and Dorothy Wall, who have been ruled out of the World Cup, while star back row Aoife Wafer is yet to regain full fitness after undergoing knee surgery. Haney and McMahon also missed last weekend's win over Scotland in Cork. "Christy Haney has picked up a bump, hamstring piece so that rules her out of consideration for this," said Bemand, whose team to face Canada shows 10 changes from the Scotland game. "Other than that we are in pretty good health coming back from the Scotland game."Obviously we've said that Aoife Wafer is tracking nicely but isn't at the point to be considered for this game but other than that, as a squad, we're in reasonable health."On co-captain McMahon, he replied: "Sorry, Tricky [Edel] as well. She's back on pitch and training and is doing a great job, bringing her leadership capabilities and setting the standard within straining as she always had."This one probably comes a beat early but she's right on the cusp of being ready. There'll be a piece that she's in the mix but not quite yet."Over the course of the summer we've just being managing a knee piece. She's back on pitch training with the group now and ramping up the training minutes."Bemand, who led Ireland to third in this year's Six Nations, added that he is "getting closer" to finalising his squad ahead of Monday's announcement. "We think we're getting closer to what we want to go with. We've all spoken about having squad depth," added the Englishman. "I think there's 10 changes and it's moving in the direction we want. Squad competition is high. "We know there's a competition coming over the horizon and actually the players are embracing and putting there best foot forward in terms of their on-pitch performance day in, day out."Former Ireland internationals Lindsay Peat, Claire Small and Fiona Hayes will join presenter Nicola McCarthy and commentator Oisin Langan in Belfast from 11:50 BST on BBC iPlayer & BBC Two NI.