- Paddy McAllister - lateral & cruciate ligaments, left knee
- Nick Williams - medial ligament, left knee
- Paddy Wallace - anterior cruciate ligament, left knee
- Tommy Bowe - lateral ligament, right knee
- Chris Henry - cartilage tear, right knee
- Chris Farrell - anterior cruciate ligament, right knee
- Adam Macklin - knee
- Jared Payne - groin
- Johann Muller - groin tear
- Stephen Ferris - right ankle tendon
- Roger Wilson - hamstring
- Sean Doyle - fractured fibula
- Adam D'Arcy - fractured ankle
Obviously the leg joints are particularly prone to injury in rugby, so it's probably no surprise to see them so heavily-represented in the injury list, but the spate of knee injuries looks very freakish...
I have heard people musing about whether the sheer size and weight of some of these guys is simply too much for their frame (in layman's terms) - I don't know whether this is the case or not, but certainly looking at the likes of McAllister and Macklin, who between them have managed about one season fit from the last three years, it would make you wonder. And if it is the case, I don't hold out much hope for Paddy Mac's knees next year, given how monstrous he looks in his last few tweeted photos!!
Of course, it could all just be dumb bad luck - in fairness Ulster haven't been as heavily affected by injuries in the last couple of years, while both Munster and Leinster have gone through some periods of extremely lengthy injury lists. But you'd like to think that at least the question is being asked off our medical/physio/S&C teams to make sure that promising careers aren't going to be stillborn because of something systematic going wrong.
(I'm a total layman btw, with no medical knowledge at all, any docs/physios out there with an opinion??)