D'Arcy picked up the injury in the 31-17 defeat by the Springboks in Bloemfontein and will be out for two weeks.

He returns home to be replaced by Munster's Shaun Payne.

D'Arcy, who had formed an impressive centre pairing with captain Brian O'Driscoll, was forced off the field half an hour into the Test.

Ireland coach Eddie OSullivan said after the game: Gordon's injury certainly didn't help things for us.

Losing D'Arcy is a major blow to the Irish who will be looking for their first Test victory in South Africa to square the series.

Ireland were outscored by four tries to one and generally outplayed by the Springboks.

While very much in the running to win in Bloemfontein before the injury, eventually slumped in the second half to lose the first Test.

D'Arcys replacement, Payne, was, ironically, born in Cape Town and was watching the Test series as a spectator.

Payne, whose grandparents are from County Sligo, has had a great season with the Irish province and was recently voted Munster's player of the year.

The Irish may have a better chance on Saturday, but the likelihood is they will need to be a lot better if they are to stop South Africa from claiming a clean sweep.

The Boks have been buoyed by the victory, so much so that a new sense of optimism has swept through the country overnight, and that is sure to filter through to the team.

Newlands, at sea level and on a softer pitch, is more suited to the Irish game.

But the first Test is one the tourists will want to forget as quickly as possible.

"We dug our own graves at times," coach Eddie O'Sullivan said, referring to the two tries they let through from defensive errors that finally swung the match in the Boks' favour.

"We were in it for much of the first half but we didn't finish off our attacking options a lot of the time. We didn't take the game to South Africa in the second half.

They defended well and came at us the whole time. Our game was not where it should have been and we will have to work on that this week."

Captain Brian O'Driscoll said: I am disappointed, our support lines were nowhere near good enough and we turned the ball over so many times we really made it hard for ourselves.

If we are to win these sorts of Tests we definitely need to improve 200-300%."

He added: We have one game left in this season and we have to make sure it counts."