Alan Quinlan's appeal against a six-week ban for stamping will be heard by the ERC in Dublin this afternoon. The Munster flanker was found guilty under law 10.4(b) following an incident during the Heineken European Cup round-four victory over Cardiff at Thomond Park last month.

Quinlan (32) admitted the offence, hoping for a shorter suspension, but the three-man disciplinary committee imposed a ban that as well as sidelining him for the end-of-year wins over Leinster and Connacht rules him out of Munster's trip to Wales to face the Dragons this Friday.

More importantly, as things stand Quinlan is unavailable for the next two rounds of the European Cup, away to Bourgoin on January 14th and at home to Leicester on January 20th.

Quinlan's absence is also untimely in the context of his Test career. Having missed most of last season through injury, he slipped down the international back-row pecking order, and despite playing consistently well in the first half of this season he needed to maintain form in the coming weeks to have any chance of squeezing into the Six Nations training camp.

The squad will be announced on January 15th.

Unless the ERC relent, Quinlan is out until January 30th, while Munster's next game after that is a trip to the Borders on February 16th, by which time Ireland will have played Wales and France.

The three-man appeal committee comprises chairman Rod McKenzie (Scotland), Matthew Lohn (England) and Robert Horner (England).

Munster have plenty of cover for Quinlan; Anthony Foley and Mick O'Driscoll returned to training in Cork yesterday, along with wing Anthony Horgan and prop Marcus Horan, also recovered from injury.

"It's great to see those lads back training, particularly given the sort of schedule we have," said coach Declan Kidney.

"But we'll wait and see how they come through before we announce a panel. It's a tough schedule for the players with three games in nine days so we just need to give them as much time as possible before deciding on who we will bring.

"David Wallace took a knock (against Connacht) as well on the same shoulder as he did against Leinster, so he needs time too."

Today is also the day for final submissions on the racism allegations by London Irish against Matt McCullough.

"The disciplinary officer (Roger O'Connor) will closely review all the evidence to determine if there are grounds to proceed with a misconduct complaint," read an ERC statement.

The Ulster lock admitted directing abusive language toward winger Delon Armitage during the European Cup game at Ravenhill on December 15th but denied making a racist slur.

Meanwhile a scan on David Humphreys yesterday confirmed extensive ligament damage to an elbow and upper arm that rules out the Ulster number 10 at least until February.

Humphreys (35) sustained the injury early in last Sunday's loss to Leinster at Lansdowne Road and was replaced by Paddy Wallace, who now has a chance to establish himself in the Ulster XV and Ireland squad.

A broken arm would have prematurely ended Humphreys's last season as a professional and ruled out any slim chance Eddie O'Sullivan could take him to the World Cup as outhalf cover.

Leinster also remain confident their injury concerns will have cleared before the pivotal arrival of Edinburgh to Donnybrook on January 13th. Girvan Dempsey (ankle) remains the most serious concern after Will Green and Felipe Contepomi came through against Ulster, while Ronan McCormack's early departure was put down to a "stinger" in an arm. Trevor Hogan and Luke Fitzgerald may be fit to play in Saturday's Magners League game with the Ospreys in Donnybrook.

The Ospreys and Edinburgh games were sold as a package so a 7,000 capacity for both should be confirmed soon.

Connacht have lost two ever present forwards for the next four to six weeks. Flanker John Muldoon cracked a cheekbone during Sunday's 14-8 loss to Munster while lock David Gannon damaged ankle ligaments.

Connacht coach Michael Bradley must also plan without wing three-quarter Keith Matthews until next season after the 24-year-old damaged a cruciate knee ligament in the closing stages of that match.