CONOR MURRAY WILL train fully with Munster today after an injury scare before last weekend’s Guinness Pro14 win over Connacht.
The Ireland scrum-half was withdrawn from the game shortly before kick-off after taking a knock during the warm-up, with Neil Cronin coming into the team in his place.
However, Munster boss Johann van Graan confirmed that Murray has been given the all clear and is set to play against Benetton in Saturday’s Pro14 quarter-final at Thomond Park.
“We took him off as a precaution on Saturday before the game,” said van Graan. “He was assessed by the medical team this morning, just a bit of stiffness, a minor neck injury and he’ll be available to train this afternoon.
“He took a hit. It was on the TV coverage, in the warm-up, he fell backwards. He really wanted to play and we said we’ll go and assess in the changing room. He’s had some issues before but luckily after close examination by the medical team all is good and he’s ready to train.
“It’s great news, fantastic news.”
There was more positive news for the province with van Graan confirming that Joey Carbery and Keith Earls are set to return from injuries this weekend against Benetton.
Earls has been sidelined with a thigh injury in recent weeks, while Carbery has been struggling with a hamstring issue.
However, both key players are in line to be back in full training tomorrow.
“Both will be into team training for the first time tomorrow afternoon and should they come through that and Thursday’s training they should all be available for selection over the weekend,” said van Graan.
“It’s also great news. They haven’t been with the team for a while so they won’t train today but hopefully get into full training tomorrow and then hopefully that goes well.”
Centre Dan Goggin has been given the green light to train today having passed his HIA on Saturday.
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Tough blow to lose so many important players. Molony and Penny were two of the stars of the 6 Nations while Byrne and Hackshaw were key playmakers at 10 and 12 with Hacksahw being the captain. I’d fancy Allison to come into the backrow instead of Molony without too much drop off in quality as he might have started if he’d been fit for the 6 Nations. Replacing Penny is nigh on impossible but Healy and French/Moore will do a fine job coming in at 10 and 12. The issue will be the lack of depth now we’re down some big players and guys having so many big games in such a short period of time.
Its concerning the amount of serious injuries in a young squad like that already
One “IQ” player is that a good return should there be more
@Exiled Dub: why should there be more?
also Iwan Hughes is a IQ rugby product who is with Ulster now.
I wonder how the other home countries are getting on, say England next week ?? Do we have the worst list ???)
@Martin Quinn: A few injuries and also the unavailability of #10 Marcus Smith because he’s playing for England development XV vs the Barbarians ! A disappointing priority for the rest of the squad, I imagine.
See https://www.englandrugby.com/news/england-men-u20s-squad-update/
@Martin Quinn: No mention of Australian injuries here:
https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2019/05/07/world-u20-championships-junior-wallabies-squad
They beat NZ 24-0 in a final recently !
@Martin Quinn: Italy had to omit 3 injured players who were “more or less important”. See:
https://www.federugby.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=112&Itemid=427
So my guess is that our missing 5, 6, 7, 10 and 12 represent the greatest omissions in our group.
Ah well, cometh the hour, cometh the man …
@Martin Quinn: https://u20rugby.wordpress.com if you’re interested keep an eye on this
@Glenbower:
Thanks for that :: Glen
@Eddie Hekenui:
Thanks for that :: EDDIE