Especially with the Heineken Cup final just 13 days away.

In saying all that, O'Connell didn't look too worried himself as he hobbled off the field unaided and at the time the move looked merely precautionary. "We don't know the full story yet, " said a Munster spokesman, "and everything will become a lot clearer in the next 24 hours. His ankle is packed with ice but we're hopeful it's nothing too serious. He'll be assessed fully tomorrow but as I've said, I don't think it's anything too serious."

It was the same prognosis for Christian Cullen, who left the field with a similar ankle injury to O'Connell's on 60 minutes. "Christian's injury is something similar and again we'll know more the next 24 hours, " said the spokesman.

The injury to the New Zealander, who lined out in the number 13 shirt on Friday, is the latest in a long line of injuries suffered by Munster's outside centres. First Barry Murphy injured his ankle against Ulster back in March and then John Kelly damaged his shoulder while wearing the shirt against Leinster.

When Kelly went off, Rob Henderson took his place but he too had to be replaced by Tomas O'Leary.

And the bad luck continued. Mike Mullins, who started against the Borders at 13, was injured by half-time, with Jeremy Manning switching to outside centre in the second-half. But he too picked up a knock in the final minutes and had to be replaced by scrum-half Frank Murphy. If all that wasn't enough, Cullen's replacement on Friday night, Gary Connolly, lasted just two minutes on the park, meaning that Denis Leamy had to line up in the number 13 position for the last 20 minutes.

As Declan Kidney has said, maybe they should call it the 12A shirt from now on.