Dave Kearney and Richardt Strauss likely to return for Leinster

The province looking to bounce back from weekend’s defeat for the Harlequins return fixture

Sean Cronin talks with Jimmy Gopperth at Tuesday’s Leinster Rugby session. The New Zealander looks set to depart the club at the season’s end. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Sean Cronin talks with Jimmy Gopperth at Tuesday’s Leinster Rugby session. The New Zealander looks set to depart the club at the season’s end. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Leinster will look to quickly rebound from Sunday's European Champions Cup defeat to Harlequins, as Conor O'Shea's team travel to the Aviva for the Pool two return fixture this Saturday .

On the injury front there’s some mixed news for the province as backs Darragh Fanning and Gordon D’Arcy sat out on Tuesday’s training session. Although both are expected to be fit for Saturday.

Leinster Rugby have said that “Darragh took a number of knocks during the game while Gordon was recovering from a slight calf injury sustained in the second half of Sunday’s game.”

On the flip side Dominic Ryan, Richardt Strauss and Dave Kearney all took part in the session after the trio all missed out on the Harlequins defeat.

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Ryan and Kearney missed out on selection due to quad and hip issues respectively. Both players picked up the knocks last week during training.

Ryan had been in fine form leading up to the fixture, whilst Kearney had only recently returned from a long-term knee injury.

The Leinster team to face Harlequins will be announced at midday on Friday.

Meanwhile the province have announced that outhalf Jimmy Gopperth has been allowed to speak to other clubs, and is likely to depart for a return to the English Premiership at the end of this season. Wasps is his most likely destination.

Eamon Donoghue

Eamon Donoghue

Eamon Donoghue is a former Irish Times journalist