Not again.

Sean O’Brien made his long-awaited return for Leinster last night, after being named as captain for their PRO14 clash wit Scarlets.

The flanker hadn’t played since since Leinster’s Champions Cup fixture with Exeter Chiefs back in December, missing three crucial months of action for both club and country.

O’Brien went through months of rehab and recovery, after undergoing surgery on a longstanding hip problem. But his return didn’t end in ideal circumstances, with the Lions star replaced by Max Deegan after just 27 minutes.

It’s not a reoccurrence of his hip problem, but rather a fresh injury to his shoulder. After the game, head coach Leo Cullen said we will have to wait and see before we know the full extent of the problem.

“Sean is OK in there. He took a bang on the shoulder and we’ll just have to see how that settles down,” said Cullen.

“It’s early days yet, so we’ll just have to see. We’ll have a report on that next week.

“There’s no long-lasting damage I’m aware of and once I have more information, I’ll have more to tell you.”

Terrible news for Leinster. Terrible news for Ireland. Devastating for O’Brien.