Injured Players Back In The Mix For Leinster

The Leinster squad trained at UCD yesterday ahead of Sunday’s visit to Benetton Treviso in the GUINNESS PRO12 (kick-off 3.30pm local time/2.30pm Irish time).

Academy prop Ed Byrne had successful operation on his ACL yesterday which he injured in the final minutes against Edinburgh in the last round of the PRO12. He is expected to be sidelined for up to six months.

The rest of the Leinster squad not involved with the Ireland set-up trained as normal, with prop Martin Moore also taking to the pitch this week as he steps up his recovery. He is, however, some weeks away from a return to full contact training. Ben Te’o is also taking a limited part in training albeit that his forearm is in a cast.

Other players returning from medium to long-term injuries, like Dave Kearney, Jordi Murphy, Fergus McFadden and Shane Jennings, have all trained well this week and are available for selection.

The Leinster team to face Benetton Treviso will be announced on Friday afternoon. With the back-to-back European Champions Cup clashes with Harlequins looming, centre Noel Reid says these are an important few weeks for the squad as a whole.

“These periods every year are pretty big for the lads who aren’t in the international squads and the younger guys coming through,” he said.

“If you play well in these games, there’s Champions Cup games coming up so you can hopefully put your hand up and give Matt (O’Connor) a bit of a headache.

“I was looking forward to getting a bit of a partnership going with Ben (Te’o). He’s a big man, he carries pretty well and he’s got good skills. It would have suited my game playing off him, he could have created a bit of space for me. I’m just concentrating on my own game for now though.”