Any hopes that the injured Caelan Doris had of doing an ‘Alun Wyn Jones’ and making it back to fitness in time for the British and Irish Lions tour have been quashed following an update from Leinster on Monday.

The Ireland captain had originally been touted to skipper Andy Farrell’s squad on the trip to Australia. However, he pulled up lame with a shoulder injury in his club’s recent Investec Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton and the Lions captaincy was instead given to Maro Itoje.

Doris wasn’t named by Farrell in the squad of 38 announced last Thursday in London, but Leinster claimed in a media release in advance of that selection: “The full extent of the injury, and implications for the summer, won’t be known until after the procedure.”

That procedure took place on Friday and it has now been confirmed that Doris will be sidelined for between four to six months – meaning it will be September at the earliest that he returns to play, while a six-month lay-off would leave him in a race to be fit for Ireland’s Autumn Nations Series in November.

A Leinster statement read: “Caelan Doris had a procedure on Friday last week for a shoulder injury which will keep him out of action for between four to six months.”

Leinster had better news regarding James Ryan…

It was 2021 when Lions tour skipper Jones was ruled out of the tour following a shoulder injury sustained in the pre-departure match versus Japan in Edinburgh. However, he defied that prognosis to remarkably fly out to South Africa several weeks later and captain the Lions in their three-match series against the Springboks.

Sadly, there won’t be any similar reprieve for the 27-year-old Doris, who had taken over the Ireland captaincy for the 2024/25 season and was heavily backed to skipper Farrell’s Lions.

While the update on Doris was disappointing, Leinster did provide some happier news regarding one of their 12 players who were chosen for the Lions.

“James Ryan came through the (Zebre Parma) game at the weekend with no issues after his return from injury,” read their medical bulletin ahead of next Saturday’s United Rugby Championship meeting with Glasgow in Dublin.

READ MORE: Ben Earl welcomes extra ‘string to his bow’ that won’t do his British and Irish Lions chances ‘any harm’

Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/caelan-doris-worst-lions-tour-fears-are-confirmed-as-leinster-issue-post-operation-update