Rugby:Leinster will learn the full extent of Rob Kearney's ankle injury in the next 48 hours. The full-back was stretchered off in the closing stages of the nerve-jangling 29-28 Heineken Cup win over Clermont Auvergne last night in some distress and left the RDS on crutches
With a semi-final against Toulouse or Stade Francais looming on the first weekend in May, Kearney is an obvious concern although the province are hopeful the Ireland international will be available for that clash.
Brian O’Driscoll suffered a recurrence of his troublesome knee injury in the bruising encounter while Jonathan Sexton took a bang to the head but both players are expected to be back in action sooner rather than later.
Toulouse host Stade Francais in tomorrow’s final quarter-final and coach Michael Cheika admits he will now have to use his resources wisely.
“It never gets easy in this tournament. The further on you go the harder it becomes,” he said. “I think Clermont will go on to win the Top 14 this year. We’re playing another French team and the pressure gets greater because there’s more at stake.
“That’s when teams up their game. We have to go to France, we have no choice. Hopefully after that we’ll have a game at a neutral ground. There’s a few walking wounded so we’ll have to assess that over the weekend.
“We’ll have to marshal our injuries because they’re starting to queue up a bit. We must make some strong decisions on what we target, when we target it and who we target it with.”