AS HIS SIDE moves gradually towards the business end of the current campaign, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen is set to welcome back a couple of key players from injury in the coming weeks.

Marked absent for the whole of the 2025/26 season up to this point due to a combination of hip surgery rehabilitation and a fractured thumb, experienced full-back Hugo Keenan could potentially return in the eastern province’s United Rugby Championship clash with Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun Stadium this Saturday.

Cullen certainly expects Keenan to be available when Leinster face Edinburgh in a European Champions Cup Round of 16 showdown at the Aviva Stadium on 5 April and he is also hopeful Andrew Porter will have recovered from the calf injury that ruled him out for the entirety of the Six Nations Championship in time to feature in that knockout bout.

“Hugo Keenan is good. He’s trained away, so hopefully he will feature at some point in the very near future for his first game of the season. Andrew will be similar,” Cullen explained at a Leinster media briefing in UCD yesterday.

“Hugo was very close to being back, but he obviously had a setback. He’s training now fine, so hopefully Hugo might feature this weekend. Ports, it’s just trying to get a bit more training into him realistically, but he’s looking good.”

In fact, a squad bulletin issued by Leinster on Monday afternoon listed loosehead prop Porter under ‘further assessment required’ in regards to this weekend’s encounter against URC table-toppers Glasgow.

It is also stated James Ryan will be further assessed before a final decision is made on his possible involvement in the Glasgow game, but the calf injury that ruled the second-row out of Ireland’s Triple Crown-clinching victory over Scotland could keep him out of contention for the time being.

Yet while James Lowe (groin), Ryan Baird (fractured tibia), Paddy McCarthy (foot) and Jack Boyle (leg) are all due to remain absent for extended periods – Boyle is set to miss the remainder of the season – Cullen isn’t anticipating Ryan’s injury being a long-term problem.

“We’ll just manage James this week, so it’s sort of a week of rehab for him and then let’s just see. It’s just early days. I don’t think it’s a showstopper, but it will be a couple of weeks. So he’s already nearly a week since it happened. I know he tried to train last week, it just didn’t quite work out.

“James Lowe will be a little bit longer. Ryan Baird will be tighter for the [Champions Cup] knockout rounds, but certainly if he doesn’t make that certainly just after that. He’ll be close. He’s back running and everything now, and he’s looking in good shape.”

Ronan Kelleher at training yesterday. Grace Halton / INPHO Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO

Following the conclusion of Ireland’s Six Nations campaign, Leinster will gradually be reintegrating their sizeable international contingent back into the provincial set-up with Ciaran Frawley and Ronan Kelleher both pictured at training in UCD yesterday fresh from appearing off the bench against Scotland on Saturday.

Sam Prendergast and Thomas Clarkson are others who trained with Leinster on Monday after featuring for Ireland in the Championship, while Robbie Henshaw and Jimmy O’Brien have also made swift returns to the province having been drafted into the Ireland squad ahead of their fourth round meeting with Wales on 6 March.

Cullen will be hoping that some of those who are still to return can replicate the form they displayed in the green of Ireland over the past few weeks, with the likes of Jamie Osborne and Tommy O’Brien amongst those to have produced eye-catching moments in the Six Nations.

Between them, Osborne and O’Brien contributed seven tries over the course of the Championship – even though the latter only saw minutes in three of the five games Ireland played during the spring.

Both players began to look quite comfortable in the Irish back-three the longer the campaign wore on, but Cullen wasn’t surprised to see them stepping up to the standard of Six Nations rugby.

“They’ve done loads, but there’s a lot of games that they’ve played with us at this point. Jamie’s done more in an international sense, even though he’s significantly younger than Tommy. Unfortunately for Tommy, he just managed to pick up very unfortunate injuries at very unfortunate times,” Cullen added.

“There’s no ideal time to get injured, but he’s picked up more than his fair share. Which has just stalled his international progression, but we’re watching him train all the time and thinking this guy is ready to explode. Then he gets a setback, so he just had to be patient.

“Jamie, you’ve seen since he’s literally straight out of school coming into the building during Covid. You’re like, ‘Bloody hell, this kid, he’s serious now’. He’s been fantastic during the Six Nations. Guys are just hungry to play and that’s what you want.”