The Ireland wing Mack Hansen is expected to miss out on a place in the British & Irish Lions’ team for the first Test against the Wallabies on Saturday with a foot injury. Hansen’s setback comes with the fullback Blair Kinghorn also poised to miss out after both skipped training on Tuesday.
The Lions have not yet officially ruled Hansen or Kinghorn out of contention to face Australia in Brisbane, but coach Andy Farrell has already privately picked his side for Saturday and given neither player was able to train on Tuesday, it seems unlikely that either will feature.
Losing Hansen is a blow to Farrell, who reserved special praise for the Ireland winger after his performance against Western Force earlier in the tour. Canberra-born Hansen had been pushing Tommy Freeman hard for a place on the right wing before an injury sustained in last Saturday’s thumping 48-0 victory over the AUNZ Invitational XV in Adelaide.
On Monday, the forwards coach, John Dalziel, denied that Hansen was carrying an injury despite the decision to expedite Darcy Graham’s arrival into the squad ahead of his Scotland colleagues Ewan Ashman and Rory Sutherland. The Lions have since confirmed, however, that Hansen sustained the injury last Saturday.
“He hurt his foot in the game. I don’t think it is anything serious, but he was managed today,” said the Lions assistant coach, Richard Wigglesworth. “Hopefully, he will be fully integrated pretty quickly. It is nothing that we are overly concerned about, but we need to make sure we have enough numbers at training. But it doesn’t look too serious. A doubt is anyone who didn’t train fully today, but he’s definitely not ruled out.
“We know we have got such quality across all positions, so we would be lying if we said [team selection] was easy. In terms of how quick it was, there have been two or three conversations, we have picked, and we will tell the lads tomorrow. Nothing has been announced, so that’s always subject to change in terms of how they’ve trained and what that’s looked like. That’s why these things are kept back a bit.”
With Kinghorn also sitting out training and Elliot Daly already sent home with a broken arm, Hugo Keenan is expected to start at fullback, while Marcus Smith could profit with a place among the replacements on Saturday as someone who offers cover at fullback. Against the AUNZ Invitational XV, Smith was on the bench covering fly-half and fullback alongside Owen Farrell, who impressed in a 30-minute cameo at inside-centre.
Wigglesworth, who played alongside Farrell at Saracens for a decade, added: “I’ve enjoyed [working with him again]. He’s done exactly what we knew he was going to do in terms of help and influence, and obviously contribute on the field when that time came up. It’s been great to work with him again, but I was probably more excited for all those who hadn’t worked with him to be able to experience that. He’s been great, as we knew he would be. Not everyone did, but we knew.
“It’s been on record hundreds of times about Owen. You all know how good he is, the influence he has, his knowledge and how he helps other people get better. We all knew how good he was going to be, and it’s been that way. He’s the influential Owen that we know and love.”
