MUNSTER SAY PETER O’Mahony could make his return from a hamstring injury for Saturday’s clash against the All Blacks XV at Thomond Park [KO 5.30pm, Access Munster].
O’Mahony is part of Ireland’s squad for the November Tests but his province have confirmed that the blindside flanker remained with Munster this week to continue his rehabilitation.
35-year-old O’Mahony suffered the hamstring injury in a URC clash with the Ospreys four weekends ago, but he is now close to making a comeback.
Munster said O’Mahony is increasing his training load this week and his availability for Saturday “will be determined later in the week.” Having their former captain fit would be a huge boost for Munster.
They will be without influential centre Alex Nankivell again due to his hip injury, but back row Brian Gleeson and wing Diarmuid Kilgallen are available having made their returns from injury for Garryowen in the AIL last weekend.
Kilgallen has yet to make his Munster debut after joining from Connacht during the summer, so the province’s fans would welcome a chance to see the 24-year-old flyer.
Munster skipper Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash and Alex Kendellen are all away in Ireland camp in Portugal ahead of the November Tests.
The province’s injury list remains lengthy, with Nankivell, Shane Daly (leg), Jeremy Loughman (knee), Josh Wycherley (neck), Mark Donnelly (ankle), Dave Kilcoyne (ankle), Oli Jager (neck), Liam Coombes (leg), Thaakir Abrahams (thigh), Patrick Campbell (shoulder), Cian Hurley (knee), Edwin Edogbo (Achilles), Roman Salanoa (knee) all still out of action.
Absolute legend. Hopefully he gets an amazing reception in the stadium.
Fascinating listening to JT and Murray talking in the podcast about Joe’s ability to find any weakness in a side and exploit it, like 2 of the NZ qtr final tries against us. Should be interesting to see what he picks out in young Sam’s game. A pity winning has to matter so much as it would have been a great learning test to see what he would do against a starting Casey, Izzy, Gus, O’Toole, etc….
Agreed Carmine. Any Aviva crowd owes Joe a big reception. He developed the confidence in our team to challenge the best in the world – at least in the rankings. He gave this entire generation the space & tools to be the best version of themselves. And above all he was always a gentleman.
He should get a brilliant reception and if he doesn’t I’ll be mortified. Got so much to be thankful to him for, instilling that training should be top notch. Was just listening to Ian Madigan on Indo pod, even his description of rucking, ball presentation and walk throughs was super..