Irish second row Paul O’Connell has been forced to pull out of Ireland’s Six Nations clash against Italy tomorrow. O’Connell is unable to play due to a rib injury that has failed to heal properly.

O’Connell was never believed to be doubtful due to injury and the removal of one of the main stars of the recent victory against England can’t do much for Ireland’s confidence. Ireland fans however will be pleased to hear that the replacement for O’Connell will be Donncha O’Callaghan who comes back into the side after recovering from a knee injury. Gary Longwell will come back onto the replacements to provide cover for the second row.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2004 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Six Nations, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.