Paul Stirling Sent For Scans After Injury; Doubtful For Remainder Of T20 World Cup

Ireland captain Paul Stirling was sent for scans after suffering a knee injury during the T20 World Cup defeat to Australia.

Ireland are awaiting scan results to determine the extent of a knee injury suffered by captain Paul Stirling during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Colombo.

Stirling injured his right knee while completing a catch early in Ireland’s 67-run loss to Australia on Wednesday. He aggravated the injury further when he came out to bat during Ireland’s unsuccessful run chase. The injury forced him to retire hurt as Ireland slumped to their second consecutive defeat in the tournament.

Batting coach Gary Wilson confirmed after the match that Stirling had been sent for scans. “It doesn’t look great,” Wilson said. “He went for a scan this evening, so we’ll have to wait for confirmation. But yeah, I would say it doesn’t look ideal.”

Wilson was asked why Stirling chose to bat despite the injury. The assistant coach said the skipper wanted to lead from the front.

“I think credit to him that he knew going out there that he was probably not quite right and he still tried to go out there and get the job done for the team,” Wilson noted. “As I said, unfortunately it wasn’t to be tonight.”

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Ireland now likely need victories in their remaining two group matches against Oman and Zimbabwe to qualify for the Super Eights. Despite the setbacks, Wilson remains optimistic.

“That was why the other day (against Sri Lanka) was so disappointing because actually for 65-70 percent of that game I thought we were the better side,” Wilson added.

“It was just the last five overs of their innings and the last five overs of our innings, and we just couldn’t quite put the full game together.

“But there’s a lot of talent in that dressing room and a huge amount of belief from us as coaches to them and we have played the two best teams in our group so far. So we’ve also got two games to come there. They’re hugely important for us.” Ireland will next face Oman in Colombo on Saturday.