Henderson Injury Blow For Ulster And Ireland
Ulster and Ireland forward Iain Henderson underwent surgery on a thumb injury today which is expected to rule him of selection for approximately 10 weeks.
It is an unfortunate injury lay-off for Iain Henderson, who scored two tries from the second row against the Scarlets on Friday night. He will miss Ulster’s crunch Heineken Champions Cup clashes with Racing 92 and Leicester Tigers next month.
As well as those games and the festive interprovincial derbies, the 26-year-old lock/flanker, who had a torn ligament in his thumb, is set to miss most of Ireland’s GUINNESS Six Nations title defence which kicks off against England on Saturday, February 2.
Henderson’s next game for Ulster will be his 100th for his native province, while he played eight times for Ireland across their stellar 2018 campaign, including starts last month against Argentina and the USA. He replaced Devin Toner on the hour mark during the historic home win over New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Ulster have also lost the services of back rower Matthew Rea for eight to ten weeks. He sustained a thumb fracture during Ballymena’s 27-22 victory away to Buccaneers in the All-Ireland League, and had surgery today.