Jerry Flannery knows the sad side of the Lions | Peter Jackson

The last time the Lions took off for South Africa, Jerry Flannery had been booked into business class for the overnight flight to Johannesburg. He never got as far as Heathrow, let alone check in. Instead of going head-to-head with the Springboks during a ferocious series, Ireland's Grand Slam-winning hooker ended up watching at a beach resort in Barbados.

“Not a bad place to be when you think about it,” he says with a chuckle. “Unfortunately, injuries happen.”

Flannery's happened during a final hit-out at the Lions' pre-tour base in the Surrey stockbroker belt within 48 hours of departure. Now, 12 years later, he tells the tale while heading west from London to Bristol's Ashton Gate.

“I went to make a tackle,” he says. “Then someone, it might have been Jamie Roberts, caught the back side of my elbow. I knew I was done right away. That's the game and sometimes that's the way it goes.”

Graham Rowntree, now part of the Munster coaching hierarchy which Flannery left last year to join Quins, wasted no time offering his fellow Lion moral support. “‘Wig' said, ‘Don't worry. They can do miracles these days'.

“I didn't really believe him. I knew the elbow was broken. I was 30 at the time and I also knew that my chances of making the next Lions tour were slim.”

Flannery hasn't got where he is by indulging in self-pity. He doesn't rage against fate denying him the chance of a lifetime.

Nor does he waste any nervous energy talking about the pain of the blow which cleared the way for Scotland's Ross Ford to take his place on the Joburg Jumbo.

“You have to be philosophical,” he says, philosophically. “I'd had a bit of a shoulder injury during that Six Nations and that could have finished my season at any time. But I'd managed to get through it and win the Grand Slam.”

He wasn't the only Munster Lion to be dealt a cruel blow. Scrum-half Tomas O'Leary broke a leg and the wounded pair were flown out for treatment in America.

“Ireland were in Colorado preparing for the Churchill Cup so they sent Tomas and myself out there as part of the rehab process. After that I went on holiday which is how I came to be watching the Lions in Barbados.”

Flannery belongs to a rare breed, Lions who were selected only to be laid low before they had time to answer the opening bell.

Andrew Porter is the latest victim, the eighth player to be forced to withdraw pre-departure from a Lions trip since the advent of professionalism.

Peter Clohessy was the first to go, replaced in South Africa in 1997 by Paul Wallace. Phil Greening did get as far as Australia four years later before a blow to the knee finished his tour before it began.

Iain Balshaw missed out in 2005 because of an injury during Leeds' famous Powergen Cup win over Bath at Twickenham. A similar fate removed Wales centre Tom Shanklin in 2009 and England's Billy Vunipola four years ago.

And then there were the Anglo-Irish pair who only had themselves to blame. Alan Quinlan and Dylan Hartley missed successive tours through being in an inconvenient state of suspension, the Ireland flanker in 2009, the England captain four years later.

The Lions still have another week or so to avoid being hit by the constant danger of bad breaks and low blows.