‘I’d love to get a good chunk of the season’ – Dan Sheehan targeting return in early 2025
Daire Walsh
Leinster and Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan has revealed that he is very much on the right road towards a full recovery from the anterior cruciate ligament injury that has kept him sidelined up to this point in the season.
After damaging his ACL during the opening test of their summer tour of South Africa in Pretoria on July 6, Sheehan missed out on Ireland’s rematch with the Springboks in Durban seven days later and was also marked absent for the four games Andy Farrell’s men played across last month’s Autumn Nations Series.
He has also been forced to watch on as Leinster have won their opening seven games in this season’s United Rugby Championship, but even though he is reluctant to put an exact timeframe on his return to full fitness, Sheehan is hopeful of being available for selection in the early stages of 2025.
“I’d love to get a good chunk of the season, see how we go. I’ve been conscious not to put a timeframe on it, because then it would be tempting to rush back. It’s very much a week-to-week thing. Hopefully into the new year. It might take a month or two, but that’s what I’m sort of aiming at,” Sheehan remarked at a Just Eat & Leinster Rugby partnership extension announcement at the Aviva Stadium earlier today.
“Just for the mind, I don’t want to put an exact date on it because then I’d be rushing. In terms of the knee, it’s coming along very nicely. Emma Galvin, my physio, has worked her ass off to get me to a good spot.
“I haven’t had one setback yet, so hopefully in the New Year I can get kicking. I don’t want to rush it at the same time. It’s quite tempting, especially after the last month watching the lads out there playing big games.”