Gibson-Park and Keenan injury concerns for Lions

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Mantej Mann

journalist for BBC Sport

five hours ago

The British and Irish Lions’ first game against the Western Force in Australia on Saturday, Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan, are concerned about injuries.

After driving 20 hours from Dublin to Doha, Qatar, head coach Andy Farrell revealed lingering issues with full-back Keenan (calf) and scrum-half Gibson-Park (glute), both of whom missed Leinster’s victory in the United Rugby Championship (URC) final.

Huw Jones, a Scotland center, is back in action for Optus Stadium’s opening game of the tour because of an Achilles issue.

Gibson-Park and Keenan will be evaluated in midweek, according to Farrell.

“Huw Jones has been training,” he said. He trained thoroughly with us last week, so he’s up and running.

Duhan van der Merwe, a wing for Scotland, was pictured with ice on his foot on Friday at the Lions’ disappointing 28-24 defeat against Argentina at Aviva Stadium, but Farrell confirmed there were no new injury concerns.

“We’re here to prepare for what will be a fantastic Test series.” Along the way, he continued, “We want to play some good rugby.”

As we continue to advance, we’ll learn more about one another. We’ll of course analyze what happened and why against Argentina, but that’s just part of the journey to understand where we need to go next.

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