Maro Itoje’s chances of being named British & Irish Lions captain this week have been strengthened after Caelan Doris – one of his closest rivals for the role – emerged as an injury doubt for the tour of Australia.
Doris, the Ireland captain, will undergo shoulder surgery this week but, after a worrying assessment by the Leinster coach, Jacques Nienaber, he is in danger of missing the series against the Wallabies in a potentially momentous development before Andy Farrell names his squad on Thursday.
Farrell has previously insisted that the captaincy was not just a two-horse race between Doris and the England skipper, Itoje, but the latter now appears to be in pole position for the role. Doris sustained the injury during Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Northampton on Saturday and was replaced during the second half. Leinster do not expect Doris to play again this season and said in a statement the precise length of any layoff would not be known until after the operation. Nienaber’s “gut” instinct painted a bleak outlook for the No 8, however.
“He saw a specialist and I think there’s some further investigation that needs to be done,” Nienaber said. “Fingers crossed that things aren’t as bad as we think it is, but in the last couple of months that I’ve worked with Caelan, he’s not a guy that necessarily comes off the pitch with injury.
“So when I subjectively saw him coming off the pitch on Saturday, I thought in my mind: ‘That must be quite serious’. We’ll probably know more in the back end of the week, but my gut, and it’s only gut, says that I think it might be serious. But fingers crossed it might not be.
“It’ll definitely be a race. Shoulder injuries, depending on the amount of structural damage there is, can be anything from a two-month thing to a four-to-six month thing. We know there is damage, we’re just not 100% sure how much damage.”
Farrell is due to announce his captain and unveil his squad in front of a live audience at the O2 on Thursday and it is expected that Doris will have undergone the operation before then.
The potential to lose Doris so soon before his squad announcement is a major concern for Farrell. Even if he was already leaning towards Itoje – who excelled as England’s leader in the Six Nations – Doris is his Ireland skipper and was almost certainly nailed on to start the Test series against the Wallabies at No 8.
Farrell will now anxiously await the result of Doris’s operation, all the while exploring contingency options. Last month the head coach insisted there were at least a handful of options for the captaincy – Sione Tuipulotu, Jamie George and even Owen Farrell could fit the bill – but Itoje has excelled since assuming the role for club and country this season. And while the back-row positions in the squad will be hotly contested, there are fewer standout candidates at No8.
If Doris is ruled out, it could open the door for Taulupe Faletau to go on a fourth Lions tour, while it could also help Henry Pollock’s cause. Scotland’s Matt Fagerson and Jack Dempsey are other options, having both appeared at No 8 during the Six Nations, as well as England’s Ben Earl and Tom Willis. Jack Conan deputises for Doris for Leinster and Ireland.
The Lions play their first match – a warmup fixture against Argentina – in Dublin on 20 June before beginning their tour of Australia against Western Force in Perth eight days later. The first Test against the Wallabies is on 19 July, raising the possibility that Doris could end up joining the squad after the tour has started. Four years ago, Alun Wyn Jones suffered a dislocated shoulder in the warmup match against Japan and was initially ruled out of the tour, only to join the squad in South Africa 18 days later.
In 2017, Warren Gatland named Sam Warburton as captain for the second consecutive tour shortly after the Wales flanker had sustained a knee injury. He battled back to fitness to appear in the Lions’ first tour match against the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians but sustained an ankle injury in that fixture. Warburton had to settle for a place on the bench in the first Test defeat against the All Blacks before starring in the second Test win in Wellington.
