IRFU confirm that Peter O’Mahony is out of the World Cup

Peter O’Mahony has been ruled out of the rest of the World Cup with knee ligament damage as Ireland continue to count the cost of yesterday’s bruising 24-9 win over France.

Both Johnny Sexton and Paul O’Connell sustained injuries in the first half.

“Initial clinical assessment is encouraging and we await scanning later today”, Kearney said.

“Paul O’Connell appears to have suffered a significant hamstring injury and was hospitalised overnight”, said team manager Mick Kearney on Monday morning. Paul was in hospital overnight and he was obviously very sore.

Joe Schmidt and his coaching staff had already met early in the morning to discuss possible replacement needs ahead of their first World Cup 2015 knockout fixture next weekend and Sean O’Brien’s fate will also have to be taken into account in any decisions made.

Sexton’s groin problem could yet ease in time for him to face Argentina, but flanker O’Brien will be left to sweat on whether tournament discipline bosses opt to cite him for an alleged punch on France lock Pascal Pape.

O’Connell had previously said he’d be retiring from global rugby after the World Cup and finishes his worldwide career with 115 test caps, including 108 for Ireland – third on the country’s all-time list – and seven for the British and Irish Lions.

While O’Driscoll and his “glamour boys” from Leinster played lively cavalier rugby, O’Connell drove a pack-oriented game for Munster, relying largely on Ronan O’Gara’s boot for points.

“Of course if he is ruled out it’s going to be a monumental loss to us”.

“I think at half time there were probably mixed emotions”.

“The form he’s in is superb”.

“They can be poor one week and awesome the following week and they’ll be disappointed in the way they played against Ireland and that’s a unsafe sign for us”.

Kearney hailed O’Connell for “beaming ear to ear” at Ireland’s victory, despite fearing the worst on a personal front.

Kearney said O’Connell lightened the mood in the changing room after the game by setting aside the knowledge he was likely out of the tournament to share in the joy of Ireland’s biggest win over France by margin in 40 years.

“If you look at past games whenever Ireland have faltered, it’s usually Paulie (O’Connell) that generates something, smashes someone or gets the ball and does something different”.

“There are a lot of guys who physically get into good shape, but he’s one of the most mentally tough players I’ve been involved with”.

“He was just delighted”. I also think it’s not a closed fist.