Ireland's Christy Haney upbeat despite knee injury scare

Christy Haney is upbeat despite missing out on Ireland's WXV1 campaign in Canada and confident of a return to action for the Celtic Challenge in December.

The Ireland prop injured her knee soon after coming on as a replacement in the team’s 36-10 win over Australia earlier this month.

A number of Ireland players, co-captain Sam Monaghan, Aoibheann Reilly and Natasja Behan, are currently sidelined with ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] injuries, which usually require around nine months’ rehabilitation.

In the past, full-back Eimear Considine and scrum-half Kathryn Dane also suffered ACL injuries.

"It was at the bottom of a tackle, it was a bit of an awkward one, somebody landed coming from the opposite direction," Haney told RTÉ Sport.

"It’s an MCL [medial collateral ligament] injury. Of all the injuries in the knee, it’s one of the quickest rehabs so I'm looking at four to eight weeks.

"100%, it was bad timing for Canada but should be ready for the Celtic Challenge."

USA-born Haney has 19 Ireland caps and juggles a full-time job as a structural engineer with her rugby career.

Originally, she booked some time off for the trip and planned to meet up with her family, but she’ll remain in Ireland and cheer on her team-mates, in matches against New Zealand, Canada and USA, from Dublin.

"I’m not going over," said the 30-year-old Leinster front row, who moved to Ireland eight years ago.

"I would love to. I had booked the time off, but I was working two days on, three days off, even when I was over there so I’ve 'unbooked’ it.

"I told my mom that she should come ‘cos it was in Canada and I told her it was in Toronto [on the west coast].

"We’re on the east coast, Taylorstown, Virginia, and she said, fantastic, that would be so convenient and