Ireland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park has been ruled out of the final game of the Autumns Nations Series against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium this coming Sunday.
Gibson-Park has a thigh injury and fellow Leinster number nine Luke McGrath has been called into the squad to provide additional scrum-half cover.
Gibson-Park was one of Ireland’s star players at the weekend when they beat his country of birth New Zealand 29-20 in front of a sold-out Irish crowd.
The man who has made over 100 appearances for Leinster since coming to Ireland in 2016 pulled the strings for the boys in green as they dominated Ian Foster’s All Blacks to earn a second-ever win against the side in Dublin and a third in five years.
19-time Ireland international McGrath has not appeared in the green shirt for two years but has been impressive in blue under Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster.
His most recent Test for the side was the disastrous 2019 Rugby World Cup defeat to New Zealand in Tokyo.
If he does get minutes against Argentina, they will be his first under Andy Farrell, who became Head Coach for the 2020 Six Nations after being Joe Schmidt’s defence coach from 2016.
McGrath will join Munster stars Conor Murray and Craig Casey as the scrum-halves in the Ireland squad this week as the side look to extend their win streak to eight and end 2021 on a high.
In other news, James Ryan will take on the captain’s role in the absence of the injured Johnny Sexton.
Jack Carty, like McGrath, earned his first call-up since the World Cup to replace Sexton earlier this week.
Tickets for Sunday’s game against Argentina are available on ticketmaster.ie
