O’Mahony suffered ligament damage in his knee in the win in Cardiff, a big blow for Ireland who have already lost back Jared Payne and are still waiting to learn the extent of captain Paul O'Connell's hamstring problem and flyhalf Johnny Sexton's groin strain.
O’Connell’s injury has been described as serious after he was hospitalised overnight, but Sexton’s is not as bad as was first feared.
The Six Nations champions face Argentina in the quarter-finals in Cardiff on Sunday and could be without influential flanker Sean O'Brien who was cited on Monday for allegedly striking France's Pascal Pape.
Fullback Rob Kearney said the whole squad has rallied around the injured players, in particular O’Mahony.
"Everyone got to chat with him and console him a little bit,” Kearney told a news conference. “There is a massive togetherness in there and everyone was gutted to see him go."
After a hectic finale to the pool stage at the weekend, three other players were cited for foul play; Argentina's Marcelo Bosch and Scotland duo Ross Ford and Jonny Gray.
NUMBERS GAME
World Cup organisers had plenty to crow about on Monday as they provided an insight into some startling statistics from the completed pool phase of the competition.
Declaring it to be a "breathtaking shop window for the sport", there were record ticket sales, booming TV audiences and a noticeable narrowing of the gap between Tier One and Tier Two nations.
The 2.41 million tickets sold, with an average of 97 percent capacity, surpasses the previous best 2.3 million for France 2007 while 750,000 people watched games in fanzones.
In terms of TV audience, the biggest surprise came out of Japan. Around 800,000 people watched their opening match against South Africa, but after Japan won it in the biggest–ever World Cup shock, the audience rocketed to 20 million for their next game against Scotland and hit 25 million for the Samoa clash.
The statistics also show that the average winning margin in all pool matches is down to 24 points from 28 in 2011, while the margin in matches between Tier One countries (those in the Six Nations and Rugby Championship) and Tier Two is down to 30 from 36.
France coach Philippe Saint-Andre said his side have already put the Ireland loss behind them and are fully focussed on causing an upset against holders New Zealand in their quarter-final at the weekend.
France beat the All Blacks 20-18 in the 2007 last eight in Cardiff, eight years after coming from behind to secure a spectacular 43-31 semi-final victory against all odds.
But having won their last nine games against the French, New Zealand will be heavy favourites, something Saint-Andre is perfectly happy with.
"The history of the World Cup says everything can happen. When you’re French it’s not good when you’re favourite,” he said.
NO FEAR FOR SCOTS
Scotland prop Alasdair Dickinson acknowledged his side’s quarter-final opponents Australia will also be heavy favourites in their meeting at Twickenham on Saturday.
But World Cups are made for special moments and with two wins from their last three matches against the Wallabies, Dickinson believes there is room for Scottish optimism.
"There is no doubt we are going to be massive underdogs, but we can take confidence from that fact we've got out of a pretty tough group to reach the quarter-finals. We have nothing to lose. I don't think anybody expects Scotland to win this match," he told reporters.
South Africa are anticipating a tight tussle with Wales and defence coach John McFarland said he expected the result to come down to which side can keep their discipline in check.
“The key to Saturday and any playoff game is your discipline with and without the ball, and how you don’t give the opposition the chance to build the scoreboard through penalties,” McFarland told reporters.
(Editing by Justin Palmer)
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