MUNSTER HAVE BEEN dealt a blow ahead of Saturday’s Heineken Cup opener against London Irish with Tomas O’Leary being ruled out for the next two months.

The scrum half has been ruled out for eight weeks after sustaining a thumb injury in last weekend’s 13-9  Magners League defeat to Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

O’Leary underwent surgery on Tuesday and is now set to miss this weekend’s game against London Irish, the next Heineken Cup clash against Toulon as well as several Magners League games.

At international level, O’Leary will also miss some, if not all, of Ireland’s autumn campaign when Declan Kidney’s side face South Africa, Samoa, New Zealand and Argentina in November.

A statement on Munster’s website read:

Tomas O’Leary who injured his thumb in the game against Leinster has been ruled out of Munster action for the immediate future.
O’Leary had an operation on Tuesday and could be out for anything from six to eight weeks.

His place in the Munster line-up is likely to go to Peter Stringer withDuncan Williams likely to be on the bench. Eoin Reddan is set to step in at international level.

It has also been confirmed that Munster will not be lodging an appeal to the IRFU against the seven week suspension imposed on Lifeimi Mafi for a high tackle on Leinster’s Gordon D’Arcy in last weekend’s defeat to their rivals.