Lions secondrow Joe McCarthy a doubt for Second Test in Melbourne

Confirmation that Joe McCarthy is a doubt for the British & Irish Lions’ Second Test against the Wallabies in the Melbourne Cricket Ground next Saturday has been underlined by the tourists’ decision to call up the Scotland and Glasgow Warriors lock Gregor Brown as additional cover.

McCarthy was taken off in the 43rd minute of Saturday’s 27-19 win over Australia and afterwards Lions head coach Andy Farrell confirmed the 24-year-old Leinster and Ireland lock is suffering from plantar fasciitis, a painful inflammation to the foot sole.

“It was niggling away at him there. We got him off. Hopefully we got him off in time,” added Farrell. The clear signals are that McCarthy will not be able to train this coming week, and ultimately he will need rest and recuperation, and possibly an operation.

It’s too early in the week for the Lions to ascertain whether McCarthy will be able to play for 40 or 50 minutes in the MCG next Saturday. But either way Brown’s promotion will probably mean Ollie Chessum, who replaced McCarthy, won’t be risked in Tuesday’s final midweek fixture against a Toutai Kefu-coached Pasifika XV likely to include Kurtley Beale.

Brown’s call-up means the Lions squad has been extended to 45 players, and he will join the squad in Melbourne on Sunday along with Scotland team-mates Rory Sutherland and Ewan Ashman, who featured in their country’s win over Samoa last Friday in Auckland.

This expansion of the squad, akin to recent Lions tours, ahead of a final midweek game when the head coach does not want to risk the vast bulk of the Test 23 will invariably lead to more claims that this match devalues the tour and that the fixture should be removed from the schedule in the future.

However, in the aftermath of the First Test win, Farrell said: “Well, we care about the squad and nothing but the squad. That’s how it’s been the whole time. We’ve never separated once. We’ve been all in everything together. We’ll enjoy this victory tonight together. We travel to Melbourne tomorrow. We’ll name a side internally just before dinner. Then everyone will roll in on Monday to make sure that team, in an extended captain’s run like we’ve been doing over the past four of five weeks, is (given) as good a preparation as we’ve had all tour. It matters to us on Tuesday night as a group.”

He also confirmed that Blair Kinghorn and Garry Ringrose are likely to feature and thus put themselves in contention for the remainder of the series.

“Blair’s doing well. Blair’s doing pretty well, so we’ll see. Garry’s good. Garry’s going well. Hopefully they carry on that trajectory and could be available for Tuesday.”

Finn Russell was “cramping a little bit”, said Farrell, “so that’s why we took him off.”

Asked if Tuesday’s game might be a distraction for the Lions and therefore help the Wallabies in any way, and speaking ahead of Brown’s call-up, Australia’s head coach, Joe Schmidt, commented drily: “They’ve got 44 players, so I don’t really see it as an edge.

“I’m not great at maths. I was an English teacher. But 44 players still leaves them 21 that don’t have to play on Tuesday night. So, I think they’ll roll into the weekend pretty well.”

Click here to read article