{"id":268509,"date":"2026-01-28T15:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/268509\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:11:08","slug":"full-back-keenan-leaves-ireland-camp-with-hand-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/268509\/","title":{"rendered":"Full-back Keenan leaves Ireland camp with hand injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Full-back Hugo Keenan has left the Ireland camp after suffering a hand injury in training in Portugal on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Leinster man had recovered from hip surgery and was set to line out for the first time since last summer&#8217;s British and Irish Lions tour in Ireland&#8217;s opening Guinness Six Nations game on Thursday week.<\/p>\n<p>Keenan, 29, has been Ireland&#8217;s first choice full-back since breaking into the team in 2020, and has won 49 international caps; he scored the series-winning try in the second Lions Test against Australia last July.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s another blow for Andy Farrell&#8217;s injury-hit squad ahead of their first-round match in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Versatile back Mack Hansen, who scored a hat-trick from full-back against Australia in November was already ruled out with a foot injury, while Jamie Osborne hasn&#8217;t played since the Japan match in the autumn due to a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n<p>Ulster&#8217;s Jacob Stockdale, Leinster&#8217;s Ciar\u00e1n Frawley and Munster&#8217;s Jack Crowley may come into the running for the 15 jersey against Les Bleus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hugo Keenan will return to Ireland after sustaining a fractured thumb in training on Tuesday afternoon in Portugal,&#8221; said the union, who also confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/six-nations\/2026\/0128\/1555519-aki-cited-after-alleged-comments-to-match-officials\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bundee Aki has been replaced in the squad by Ulster&#8217;s uncapped centre Jude Postlethwaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Farrell is also without Hansen, Robbie Henshaw, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O&#8217;Brien, Shayne Bolton, Jordan Larmour, Andrew Porter,Ryan Baird, Jack Boyle, Paddy McCarthy and Tom Ahern due to injury.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"24 January 2026; James Lowe of Leinster, left, and Bundee Aki of Connacht after the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Leinster at Dexcom Stadium in Galway. Photo by Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023cf77-614.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Connacht centre Aki (above, c) has been cited by the URC for alleged comments aimed the match officials in last weekend&#8217;s defeat to Leinster, while the IRFU says that it is &#8220;investigating the matter further internally and no additional comment will be made at this time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The IRFU does not tolerate any form of disrespect shown towards match officials and does not condone actions that fall below the standards expected of players representing Irish rugby.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the RT\u00c9 Rugby podcast on<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/ie\/podcast\/rt%C3%A9-rugby\/id778518589\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4W9mkdG9LnOJ0iafKEq6rk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spotify<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/radio1\/podcast\/podcast_therugbyshow.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n<p class=\"youtube-container tpe\" data-embed=\"youtube\" data-id=\"DkC3c4JIrYU\">\n<p>Follow every Ireland game in the Guinness Six Nations on RT\u00c9.ie\/Sport and the RT\u00c9 News app, or listen to live commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1.<\/p>\n<p>Watch live coverage of England v Ireland (21 February) and Ireland v Wales (6 March) on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Full-back Hugo Keenan has left the Ireland camp after suffering a hand injury in training in Portugal on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-268509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}