Footage of James Ryan’s knee injury shows why Alan Quinlan was so concerned

Patrick McCarry

“You can see, it’s the left leg there. Let’s hope he’s okay.”

You could hear the concern in the voice of Alan Quinlan, on commentary duty at The Sportsground, as Leinster physios looked over James Ryan.

The second row was just over an hour into his first start of the season when he suffered a knee injury when getting cleared out, after making a tackle. Ryan looked in considerable pain and former Munster flanker Alan Quinlan expressed his hopes that it would not be a long-term injury.

The score, at that stage of the match, was 7-0 to Leinster against hosts Connacht. It looked as though the scoreboard operator would be kept considerably busier when, after two minutes, Leinster scored through Cormac Foley and because of some super Josh van der Flier play.

Love the strength from Josh van der Flier for that Cormac Foley try pic.twitter.com/jAigHD1uzA

— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) October 15, 2022

James Ryan suffers knee injury

Conditions were difficult in Connacht, on Friday evening, and Ross Byrne missed a couple of penalty attempts that kept Connacht within a score of levelling matters.

James Ryan suffered his injury after about 61 minutes. He went in on a tackle assist as winger Mack Hansen was stopped in his tracks.

Jack Aungier and Josh Murphy – two of his former teammates at Leinster – went in to clear Ryan out. Aungier was pushing across and Murphy was pulling back, and the result saw Ryan’s planted left leg being wrenched.

Ryan let out a roar of pain and initially looked to to be in a lot of trouble. He was attended to on the pitch, though, and was at least able to leave the game on his own two feet.

James Ryan is injured after making a tackle on Mack Hansen. (Credit: URC)

Following the game, which Leinster went on to win 10-0, Leo Cullen told reporters that James Ryan had ‘twisted his knee awkwardly’. The Leinster boss said it would be a matter of ‘wait and see’ with Ryan.

Jack Conan [cut to his eye] and man-of-the-match Josh van der Flier [ankle] were further injury concerns after Leinster’s fifth straight league win of the season.

There are just three weeks until the start of Ireland’s November internationals, at Aviva Stadium. Ryan played nine times for Ireland, last season, as well as eight Leinster outings.

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