ULSTER SCRUM-HALF John Cooney is having an MRI scan to assess the seriousness of his latest injury.

The Ireland international had to be substituted during the first half of Friday’s United Rugby Championship win over the Glasgow Warriors at Kingspan Stadium. 

Cooney suffered a hamstring strain and the province have revealed that his scan is scheduled for today.

“John, being the eternal optimist, he’s being very positive about it,” said Ulster assistant coach Dan Soper.

“To be honest, I’d be guessing (on a timescale). I’m going off John’s expertise of knowing his own body and he’s pretty optimistic about it, but we’ll see what the scan says.”

The 31-year-old is set to miss this weekend’s fixture away to Zebre, along with Rob Baloucoune (groin), Iain Henderson (thumb), Cormac Izuchukwu (knee), Luke Marshall (knee), Jack McGrath (hip), Kieran Treadwell (shoulder), Jordi Murphy (foot) and Ian Madigan.

On Baloucoune, Soper added: “It’s nothing too serious, so he’ll probably have a week off just to get that right. Nothing too major, we just want to get it right.

“It’s early season, we don’t want to be pushing guys through things like that at this time of the year.”

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