Rugby League Ireland were dealt a World Cup body blow today when Melbourne Storm prop Brett White withdrew from their squad with foot injuries.
White has been told he needs off-season surgery and is not expected back in full training until mid-January.
Storm high performance manager Mary Toomey said: ‘Brett has been troubled by persistent inflammation and soreness affecting the joints at the base of both big toes over the last few weeks.
‘He managed to get through games with medical and physio help but now needs surgery to correct this problem. We expect him to take about eight weeks to recover.’
White was originally in Australia's train-on squad and Ireland were delighted to secure his services when he failed to make the cut. They will now name a replacement ahead of Monday's departure for Sydney.
Ireland coach Andy Kelly said a replacement would be selected from a list of stand-by players and revealed he could be Australian-based.
He said: We're really disappointed to hear the news.
‘It's come so late. We had no knowledge of a medical problem and you would have thought
they would have flagged it up with us.
‘It's a fair blow. We would be pretending if we said it would not have a knock-on effect.
‘But we can't dwell on it. We have to move forward.
‘Unlike some of the nations, we don't have a massive pool of players to choose from but we have three or four forwards and a couple of backs on stand-by, including a few in Australia.
‘We'll take a considered view on who will best suit our needs.’
