O’Leary ruled out of England game

Tomas O’Leary has been ruled out by injury

Ireland scrum-half Tomas O’Leary has been ruled out of contention for Saturday’s Six Nations game against England because of an eye injury.

O’Leary suffered the injury during a fitness session on Tuesday and is set to be out for two to three weeks.

Eoin Reddan is Ireland’s only other injury concern for the match in Dublin.

The scrum-half suffered concussion in the first minute of the 19-13 defeat by Wales and will be monitored by the Irish medical team and a neurologist.

O’Leary, who was continuing his return from a back injury that kept him out of Ireland’s last two games in the Six Nations Championship, was undergoing speed training with a sled when one of the straps failed, recoiled and struck him in the left eye.

This caused a bleed within the eye which affected his vision.

The bleeding has stabilised but the injury is under review.

Meanwhile Ireland coach Declan Kidney says his Ireland players must not dwell on the injustice of Saturday’s 19-13 defeat by Wales.

“Our job is to prepare for the next game. If we keep looking at the past we’ll never get anywhere,” said Kidney.

Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll was infuriated by Mike Phillips’ crucial second-half try after an illegal quick line-out throw-in.

However, Kidney has called on the Irish players to let the incident go.

“If there’s an hour or two of that, let’s do it.

“But then we have to get on with it and then get ourselves ready for the next game.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, that’s the test. This tests the team.

“I don’t think it will be hard to get this calibre of player ready for England.”

But despite Kidney’s words, Rory Best joined O’Driscoll and several other Irish players in talking up the importance of the 50th-minute incident.

The try, scored from a quick line-out, should have been disallowed for a variety of reasons, but touch judge Peter Allan failed to spot that the laws had been breached.

We had enough chances before and after the dubious decision that it shouldn’t really have mattered

“There’s no doubt it was a real momentum-swinger that got their tails up. It was a big change in everyone’s mindset,” said Best.

“Everyone has seen the footage and it speaks for itself.

“But we feel we had enough chances before and after the dubious decision that it shouldn’t really have mattered.”

Ireland will equal their worst Six Nations performance should they lose to England.

In 2008 they lost three out of five games, resulting in the removal of coach Eddie O’Sullivan, who had presided over a dreadful World Cup the previous year.

Ireland will enter the climax of their tournament fired by an understandable sense of grievance and Best insists Grand Slam-chasing England offer a good opportunity to restore morale.

“England are the last game in the championship and our last competitive game before the World Cup,” said the Ulster hooker.

“England are on a great roll at the moment so it’s a real opportunity to get back to winning ways and secure our first Six Nations win at the Aviva Stadium.

“It’s a game that we desperately want to win.”