Leinster head coach Leo Cullen indicated that Ireland centre Robbie Henshaw could return to play for the province before the end of the season.
Henshaw has not played since injuring his shoulder in Ireland’s Six Nations win over Italy last month but said that he was optimistic about returning for Leinster before the end of the season.
Cullen said that they would have to wait and see how Henshaw’s recovery progresses while also revealing that flanker Sean O’Brien is edging closer to a return after injuring his shoulder upon his return from a hip injury against the Scarlets earlier this month.
“Robbie is obviously going to miss the next couple of weeks and whether or not he comes back towards the end of the season we’ll wait and see,” Cullen told Leinster Rugby TV.
“Sean took a knock on his shoulder in the Scarlets game but he’s responded pretty well to treatment, so this week would have probably been a bit too soon, but he’s not a million miles away so we’ll see how he progresses.”
O’Brien said that his hip is back to full strength and that he needed to address the issue earlier in the season as he felt it was impacting on his performance.
“I’d rather be training, obviously,” O’Brien told The Irish Examiner last week.
“I’ve had a frustrating couple of months now with my hip. It was just a bit of wear and tear. I kind of had an issue for the last two games and was struggling every week to train.
“It’s just one of those things that I was just getting impinged the whole time, so it had to be done.
“I had a hip scope, got the joint cleaned out, which helped an awful lot. Basically, they go in, take out all those little bits and pieces that are floating about, and close you back up.
“It was only meant to be a couple of weeks, but I was so weak around the joint that it took until now to get it strong enough. Thankfully, now it’s fine. I’m feeling good now.”
