SIMON Easterby's hopes of lining up against both his club-mates and the country of his birth have been dashed by injury.

Tadcaster-born Easterby, who now plays flanker for Llanelli, was expected to start for title-chasing Ireland in their final two Six Nations games against Wales on October 13 and England a week later.

But the back-row forward is now banned from playing for a mandatory 21 days after being knocked out during Llanelli's 12-9 Heineken Cup defeat by Leicester.

"I'm gutted to miss those games, especially as I worked so hard to reclaim my place in the Ireland team after injury last year," he said.

"I will definitely miss the Wales game, while the three weeks end on the day of the England match, so I'll probably be playing for Llanelli on that day.

"It is very unlikely I would be called straight back into the Ireland team."

The injury, which also rules the former Harrogate, Sydney University and Leeds Tykes' flanker out of Llanelli's Heineken Cup clash against Perpignan on Friday night, happened when Easterby collided with Leicester's Lewis Moody after only 12 minutes of their match - an incident he cannot remember.

"It certainly wasn't the nicest of things to happen, so I suppose it is fortunate that I can't remember exactly what happened," he said. "From looking at the video, I went for a tackle, took a bang on the side of the head and came off second best.

"The doctors who came on to the pitch were all a bit concerned as I was out for a couple of minutes and wasn't moving anything, but I've been checked out now and my neck and back seem fine.

"I'm hugely disappointed, as I would have liked to have put a few wrongs from the Scotland game right, but I've come back from far worse than this."

The 26-year-old, who has won eight caps, suffered an Achilles tendon injury in August 2000, forcing him out for nearly a full season.

But Easterby, whose family still own a farm between Tadcaster and Church Fenton, fought his way back into the national side and was looking forward to facing his Welsh club-mates and England.

"I would have been really good, but it cannot be helped," he said. "The most important thing now is to get myself back playing for Llanelli and then for Ireland.

"There is always next year to face them!"

Easterby's brother Guy, who currently occupies the Irish scrum-half berth, was also playing when the incident happened.

He said: "I actually missed the incident at the time, but I've seen it since and it didn't look that bad when Simon hit the guy's hip, but you could see he was out before he even hit the floor."

Updated: 08:51 Wednesday, October 03, 2001