Munster's O'Mahony is concentrating on club before country

Peter O'Mahony's targeted return to action from two shoulder reconstructions suggests the Six Nations-winning back row has his eye on Ireland's November Tests, but the Munster captain insists provincial obligations are his number one priority.

Munster's O'Mahony is concentrating on club before country

By Simon Lewis, Irish Examiner

Peter O'Mahony's targeted return to action from two shoulder reconstructions suggests the Six Nations-winning back row has his eye on Ireland's November Tests, but the Munster captain insists provincial obligations are his number one priority.

O'Mahony, who turns 25 in mid-September, hopes to back in a red jersey by early October at the latest following a dislocated left shoulder that ended his season early in Munster's Heineken Cup quarter-final victory over Toulouse last April and brought forward intended reconstructive surgery on his right shoulder as well.

Those two trips to the operating table meant O'Mahony missed not only Munster's league and European semi-finals at the back end of last season, but also Ireland's summer tour to Argentina.

Missing out on the opportunity to add to his 23 Test caps and having to watch Leinster's Rhys Ruddock stake his claim to an Irish back row berth might have led O'Mahony to focus on this November's Guinness Series clashes with South Africa, Georgia and Australia - but the Corkman is determined not to put the cart before the horse.

“At the moment I'm just worried about getting myself back fit, back playing, back putting in good performances for Munster,” O'Mahony said. “If I can get two or three games under my belt before the November series and I'm playing well I'd love to be involved. It just depends on when I can get back and involved.”

O'Mahony, who is targeting Munster's Guinness Pro12 round four home fixture against Ospreys on September 27 as his earliest possible comeback date, said his rehabilitation was “going very well”, however his intention had always been to skip Ireland's summer tour to Argentina to have the reconstructive surgery done.

“I had to get both of them done, but when I dislocated my left shoulder against Toulouse I had to get it done straight away,” he said. “I was going to get it done (end of season), I wasn't going to tour Argentina and was trying to nurse myself through the last few games but unfortunately it didn't pan out the way I wanted. That's part and parcel of it these days.

“I'm ahead of schedule, just a bit. It's six months for one and I'm at five and a half months at the moment.

“I'm not physically able to come back to contact yet. I actually came back a week ahead of the lads pre-season and left a week later than they did, so I did two extra weeks. It's just getting my shoulders right for contact now rather than doing anything else, pretty much.”

O'Mahony admits he is a “very poor” spectator on the sidelines, but the nature of his long-term recovery made his absence from the field a little more bearable.

“I think if it had been a kind of four-to-six-weeker, even for (missing) the Toulon (Heineken Cup semi-final), it would have been wrecking my head. With a six-month injury, at that stage there's nothing you could have done.

“But it was the first two (Ireland) games I hadn't been involved in, in some capacity for 18 months or two years so it was tough, it was tough to watch on, but I probably needed a break as well, you know.”

The timing of those scheduled surgeries should ensure Munster and Ireland get a refreshed and rejuvenated O'Mahony back at the peak of his powers, all the more encouraging for national head coach Joe Schmidt heading into the 2015 World Cup in England, which begins in just 13 months.

“I missed a bit of rugby last season and I'll miss a little bit at the start but I'll get a great pre-season in and long-term-wise, especially with the season that's in it, having a 15-week, 16-week pre-season will be invaluable by the end of it I reckon.”

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