Calling Time on a Players International Career

Checking the news sites it seems that Donnacha Ryan is injured again. Which got me thinking about some of out other talented but injury prone players Ireland have such as Dave McSharry, Luke Fitzgerald and Stephen Ferris. While having them in their various provinces is a huge asset I'm wondering should Joe Schmidt just draw a line through their names and focus on other players for the Ireland Squad?

Schmidt has only 10 games left between now and the World Cup an each of these players have a long tumultuous history with injury (in McSharry's place most likely costing him an academy place with Leinster). This means the chances of at least one or more of these four breaking down before the World Cup comes about is extremely high. So should Schmidt risk it? Out of the four all of them with the exception of Ferris are easily replaceable and with ten games left should he not focus on developing other players with a better injury profile who have a better chance of making it to that tournament?

I'm not saying that any of the four are bad players (far from it) but what I am saying is should Schmidt play the statistics and dump these four for other individuals who will be fit. Thoughts?

Interesting idea, but I don't think the 4 players are in the same situation.

Ferris and Fitzgerald have such a breadth of experience that you could probably play them in 2 World Cup warmups summer 12 months and they'd be good to go; in the meantime Schmidt just needs to monitor their fitness and let them play for their provinces.

McSharry on the other hand has probably already lost his chance of getting enough experience to make the WC squad.

Ryan's the really interesting one, he's neither fish nor flesh, he's not remotely as good as the mejia make out (he only made one HEC start before the 2011/12 season), and he plays in one of the most competitive positions in the Irish squad. He's obviously behind POC, he's fallen behind Toner, he's about level with Tuohy, and he's got McCarthy and Henderson at international level, not to mention Dave Foley in Munster, coming up on the rails behind him.

Anyway, I'm sure Schmidt has a plan A B and C for every position.

Agree with you on McSharry and Ryan and I think Ferris is a special player and with Ireland being short on ball carriers who can break the line just through sheer grunt he'll always be there abouts if fit.

As for Fitzgerald I would honestly put him in the same boat as Ryan. We have no shortage of wingers and even the guys on the Leinster boards prefer McFadden over him at 13 next year because of his fitness problems. When your fans don't think you can survive a season without injury you've got big problems. Apparently he has an abductor muscle that will have to be managed for the rest of his career so bringing him to a tournament like the World Cup were he's going to have to play week in week out is in my eyes just not feasible.

I don't think there's a need to call time on Ryan's career necessarily, if there are injuries in the future then he will slot in fairly easily and if there aren't then he simply won't be picked. I do think with all the names mentioned above things would have to be fairly dicey before he gets picked again.

If fitz has a perpetual groin condition then it would seem only a matter of time until he does himself a permanent mischief and is ruled out for province and country.

I agree re Fitzgerald. If he has an ongoing injury that needs constant management his days are numbered. Ryan is a good player but is far too hyped up. I don't think even fit he would be a starter for Ireland. Ferris is a freak and is a game changer and somebody you always want in your team. McSharry is quality but has missed a lot of boats. If he is managed well and is lucky he might feature in national green at some stage