Irish coach Declan Kidney said he planned to adopt the same policy in relation to naming his team captain as last season.
Then Kidney delayed making the announcement that Brian O’Driscoll would continue in the role until just before the November internationals.
Grand Slam champions Ireland face Australia, Fiji and South Africa on successive weekends in Dublin this autumn.
Brian O’Driscoll led Ireland to their first Grand Slam success in 61 years last March while Paul O’Connell received lavish praise for his captaincy of Ian McGeechan’s Lions squad this summer.
Speaking in Limerick yesterday during an Irish squad training camp at UL Kidney explained: “I have talked to Brian (O’Driscoll) about it and we will do the same as last year. I think it is well documented that he had some laser surgery on his eyes over the past couple of weeks, so his own pre-season needs a bit of time and space for him to have a good one.
“Let’s see who rolls up in November and we can see where we go from there then.
“I think one of the strengths is that we have a Grand Slam-winning captain, we have a Lions captain and two other guys who captained the Lions at different stages of the tour, the Heineken Cup captain, a co-captain in the Magners League and one from the Churchill. I understand there will be a bit of speculation, but my job is to try and look after each guy.”
Kidney explained that Ireland and Munster hooker Jerry Flannery will be out of action for ‘a couple of weeks’ after tweaking his calf muscle last week.
Munster scrum-half Tomas O’Leary will not resume contact work in training until he visits his surgeon at the end of this month to find out how his recovery from a fractured ankle injury is progressing.
Coach Kidney said O’Leary’s recovery was ‘progressing nicely’ .
Irish coach Kidney also warned supporters about having sky-high expectations of the side as a result of their Grand Slam-winning exploits in March.
“I was lucky enough to be involved with teams which won something one year and you become the target everyone else judges themselves off the next season,” Kidney said.
“That is just pretty much the same. I feel there was lots of talk that when we managed to get the win over Argentina that we were not too good.
“I didn’t think that was true. I don’t think we are the greatest team in the world right now even though that might be thought in some places.
“If we did nothing else, but learn off the economic situation for the past 10 years, let’s not get greedy.
“If we get greedy and expect it, then no one is going to have any fun out of any of this.
“We have a match against Australia in two months time. That is all we are looking forward to.”
Meanwhile Munster back-row Nick Williams, who was forced out of last weekend’s game against Sale Sharks at Musgrave Park with a knee injury, will miss Friday’s game against London Irish at Musgrave Park (7pm).
The injury however is not as bad as it first appeared with Kiwi Williams expected to recover after a period of rest. He is set to have further medical assessment later in the week.
This will be the second year in succession that Munster and London Irish play each other in a pre-season game. It’s also the second successive year they will compete for the Jack Wakefield Memorial Trophy.
Colm Kinsella
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