As feared, the Munster quartet of Malakai Fekitoa, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash and RG Snyman will all be unavailable for Saturday’s URC semi-final against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium (5.30pm).
The four players were all removed for head injury assessments during Munster’s bruising 14-5 quarter-final in Glasgow on Saturday evening and are following the return to play protocols, which means a mandatory stand-down of 10 days for each of them.
The victory may also have come at an additional cost as captain Peter O’Mahony will go for a scan today (Monday) on the elbow injury which forced his removal after just five minutes in Scotstoun and his availability will be determined later in the week.
Diarmuid Barron’s shoulder injury will also be further reviewed as the week progresses to determine his availability.
The only positive note in Munster’s Monday update was that there were no issues for Tadhg Beirne on his return from an ankle injury as he played the full 80 minutes in Glasgow.
The aforementioned quartet adds to a growing injury list for Munster, which already featured Liam O’Connor (neck), Eoin O’Connor (shoulder), Jack Daly (knee), Paddy Patterson (knee), Keith Earls (groin), Paddy Kelly (head), Andrew Conway (knee) and Liam Coombes (thigh).
