LEINSTER COACH GIRVAN Dempsey says Sean O’Brien is on track in his recovery from the hamstring injury that prematurely ended his Six Nations.
The powerful openside has not played for his province since the Champions Cup win over Bath in January, but is back ‘in the mix’ ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Ulster.
“It’ll depend on how he goes in the first two days this week,” Dempsey said at Leinster’s Clonskeagh base today.
It’s important that he got through some running last week. We’re hoping we can push that on this week and we’ll assess him later in the week to see how he is for the weekend.
“If he gets through the workload, the volume of training we have, then he’ll be in the mix.
“We had always targeted this period to return. His progress has been spot-on, he’s been hitting most of his markers so it’ll really just be about seeing how he deals with the added volume of a team session.”
[image alt="Sean O'Brien" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2016/04/sean-obrien-146.jpg" width="100%" height="" title="" class="alignnone" /end]
If Leinster do not judge O’Brien fit enough to take on Ulster in Belfast this weekend, then Dempsey adds he will “definitely” be ready in time for the final regular season fixture at home to Treviso a week later. A timely opportunity to build up his match fitness before the Pro12 semi-finals.
The other hamstring concerns on the books for Leinster’s physios are also nearing a return to playing, not least tighthead Marty Moore who wore Lansdowne colours last weekend. Loosehead Peter Dooley is also ‘fit and well’ according to Dempsey.
Johnny Sexton meanwhile will return to the number 10 shirt opposite Paddy Jackson in Kingspan Stadium this weekend. The Ireland out-half was held back from the win over Edinburgh due to ‘bumps and bruises’, but will have a four-week rest window behind him by the time this weekend’s interpro kicks off in Belfast.
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