Farrell 'devastated' for Healy after calf injury ends his RWC hopes

Andy Farrell says he's "devastated" for Cian Healy, after the Ireland prop's calf injury saw him miss out on the Rugby World Cup squad.

The 35-year-old was left out of Farrell's 33-man squad for the tournament in France next month, after suffering a calf injury in last night's 17-13 win against Samoa in Bayonne.

The loosehead had a scan on the injury after the Ireland squad arrived back in Dublin this morning, and the injury was enough to rule him out of contention, with Jeremy Loughman taking his spot alongside Andrew Porter and Dave Kilcoyne.

"He hasn't [made it], he's just had a scan as we got off the plane and he'll be out for a spell of time that won't be right, unfortunately, for Cian and for us, certainly for the start of the competition," Farrell said.

"It's devastating, isn't it? That's sport, that's life, that's rugby. Cian's big enough and old enough and experienced enough to be through these type of things before, I remember in 2013 on the Lions he got injured early and had to fly home.

"He's experienced something like this and understands that these things happen. He's devastated, as we are for him."

The early indication from the Ireland camp is that Healy will be sidelined for between five and ten weeks, depending on how his rehabilitation goes. If his recovery is smooth, Farrell says there's a possibility he could be available as an injury replacement should Ireland reach the latter stages of the competition.

"We'll see how his rehab goes during it, you'd never know towards the back end if he could be a replacement or not.

"How that rehab carries on is something that we'll keep a track of as we go."

Healy would have been the most experienced player in the Ireland squad having made his 125th Test appearance in last