Munster have received some crushing news just before Christmas, which also has a knock-on effect internationally, after three players were ruled out long-term.

The Irish province have confirmed that Craig Casey, Thaakir Abrahams and Jean Kleyn have all undergone surgery and will be out for four months.

Casey suffered a knee injury in the 16-14 Champions Cup defeat to Castres and was in visible pain as he was helped off the field in the first half.

Out of Six Nations

The scrum-half will now miss the entirety of Ireland’s Six Nations campaign, which is a blow for both the player and the national team with the playmaker in fine form this season.

South African duo Abrahams and Kleyn will also be long-term absentees after having operations on shoulder and thigh problems respectively.

The former joined the Irish province at the start of the season from Top 14 side Lyon and has settled in nicely at Limerick, but he will now miss a large chunk of the campaign.

That equally goes for Kleyn, who has had no luck with injuries after signing a new two-year deal in November 2023.

Munster chose to keep the 31-year-old over RG Snyman due to his durability in comparison to the double Rugby World Cup winner, but since then he has played just six matches.

They all came at the start of the current season with his last game coming against the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship in late October.

“Look, it seems like we’ve had more than our fair share of injuries over the last year to 18 months, but it’s nothing that we’re not used to and we’ve been in this position before,” defence coach Denis Leamy said.

“It’s very disappointing for the boys, but, look, we have a very good medical team. We have a really good S&C team and hopefully we’ll get them back on the track as quickly as we can.

“But it’s next man up and on we go, and, we got to show some sort of resilience around us.”

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Other issues

Casey, Kleyn and Abrahams are not the only absentees with Munster already suffering a fairly lengthy injury list.

That has been added to by star centre Alex Nankivell, who is likely to miss the next few weeks with a hamstring injury suffered against Ulster on Friday.

The Irish province are already without the likes of Sean O’Brien, Jeremy Loughman, Edwin Edogbo and Roman Salanoa, while Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray could also be absent for the huge Leinster clash.

More disappointingly, Dave Kilcoyne, who only returned against Castres after a year out, suffered a thigh injury at the weekend and has been sent for a scan.

“It’s cruel. That’s the nature of the game, unfortunately. He’s put in a huge amount of work to get back on the field, and then suddenly you’re faced with that again,” Leamy said of Kilcoyne.

“And it’s really, really disappointing, but we just try to keep the morale levels of the boys up and look, they’re great lads.

“They deal with their disappointment. They get their heads down. They start working again. It’s not ideal. It’s far from ideal, but, look, that’s the hand we’ve been dealt, and there’s a lot of work being done in the background to try and make us better and to try and prevent these sort of things happening again.”

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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/luckless-springboks-lock-set-for-another-lengthy-spell-on-the-sidelines-as-ireland-back-to-miss-six-nations-campaign