After struggling through the World Cup in New Zealand the outside centre has opted to have it operated on, which could keep him out of the game for six months (missing the majority of Leinster’s season and the Six Nations).

“He’s really happy. The medical staff are really happy. It went really well,” said Schmidt ahead of Leinster’s Heineken Cup match against Glasgow on Sunday in the RDS.

“I just tried to give him a call before I came down here. I was going to see how he was feeling but I couldn’t get hold of him so. I’ll see him Sunday maybe and I’ll certainly talk to him some time today.

“He’s in good spirits and is already talking about rehab. I don’t know how soon he can start that. But that the nature of him,” added the coach.

“He’s pretty determined that he is going to be as good as ever.”

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In what could be one of the most unfortunate events it has faced this year, the Irish squad is stunned after losing another frontliner following its game against England Saturday where the Englishmen claimed victory, 20-9. Wallace got injured when his studs caught ground as England’s Manu Tuilagi tacked him.

Wallace, who was looking totally in place, was one of the most promising players who is looking to come up big come World Cup. However, with 6 months to sit out, the 35-year-old Lions flanker’s ability will definitely be missed.

Wallace will be sitting out with his Munster colleague, Felix Jones, who is facing months of rehab with his ankle injury on a previous game against France. He is soon to find the exact recovery period when he see a specialist next week.

Horgan was a late withdrawal from Ireland 29-23 defeat to a stomach bug that saw him heading to hospital instead.

McFadden has a broken jaw which will require surgery and a six to eight week recovery.

Flannery is staying put to allow the leg injury that saw him substituted at Thomond Park to recover..

Leamy was injured in the last play of Sunday’s bonus point 37-14 Heineken Cup victory at Perpignan and was operated on in Dublin on Tuesday.

He will miss Ireland’s Six Nations defence which begins in February and Munster’s bid for a third European title.

This is essentially a triple blow to the scrum half as he is now unable to finish Munster’s Heineken Cup campaign, he can’t finish the Magners League and most importantly of all, he is no longer able to take up his place in the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa.

He was one of eight Munster players that was announced for the Lions squad and this injury comes as a huge blow to him.

No doubt the Lions and Munster are going to miss him as he has proved himself to be a central part of any campaign. He was instrumental in Ireland’s Grand Slam win earlier this year.

It is not clear how long he will be out for.

O’Driscoll could be out for upto two months pending a scan on Monday, but O’Sullivan is confident he will be available for the summer tour.

A stress fracture of the forearm, will mean the end of Gordon D’Arcy’s Six Nations campaign and an operation on Monday.

It’s likely that Trimble will line-up alongside O’Driscoll now.

This is due to a setback during his rehabilitation from back injury, O’Connell has not played rugby since the Rugby World Cup and it was hoped he would play for Munster in the Heineken Cup, but the setback ruled that out.

The initial squad will be named on Tuesday, but it is unlikely O’Connell will feature in (at least the early stages) of the tournament.

It was a hard-fought (19-9) win in Cardiff on Sunday for Ireland, in contrast to France’s 39-3 romp over Italy in Rome.

O’Sullivan knows that they must knock the momentum out of France if they stand a chance, that could be difficult with injury doubts over the centre duo of Brian O’Driscoll, their captain, and man-of-the-match Gordon D’Arcy.

O’Driscoll, who made Ireland’s first try and scored their second, left the field five minutes from time with a hamstring problem while D’Arcy sustained a groin injury.

“We don’t know how serious Brian’s injury is. He was running and felt a twinge, but was still able to run around a bit,” said O’Sullivan.

“I’m not saying he’s available for next week but there’s a much better chance now that we took him off at the right time. But he’s definitely a doubt.

“Gordon got through the game so that’s a good sign he should be available for next week.”

O’Sullivan’s assessment of their Cardiff performance is unsurprising:

“It wasn’t a vintage performance,” O’Sullivan admitted. “But there’s something to be said for winning by scoring three tries without conceding any.

Meanwhile French coach Bernard Laporte has added Sebastien Bruno and David Marty to his squad to travel Ireland after injuries to Dimitri Szarzewski and Florian Fritz.

Laporte had been expected to maintain his policy of squad rotation throughout the Six Nations as part of the build up to the World Cup – however with the Irish seen as the biggest test to French hopes, that tactic has been temporarily suspended.

Team manager Jo Maso said: “We know that to win the Championship we have to win in Ireland so we’ll start rotating the players of our 40-man squad in the last three games.”