Already resigned to losing inspirational secondrow Paul O'Connell for their opening Heineken European Cup games away to Sale Sharks and at home to Castres later this month, Munster were dealt another significant blow yesterday when Peter Stringer was sidelined for those games by a strained and bruised knee sustained in training on Tuesday.
Stringer is expected to be out for three to four weeks, which almost certainly rules him out of Munster's opening two European Cup games. As with O'Connell's projected six-week lay-off with a broken thumb, this should mean Stringer will be fit for Ireland's opening autumn international against the All Blacks on November 12th. Eddie O'Sullivan will be hoping so, as Stringer's understudy, Guy Easterby, is out of those Tests with a broken jaw.
Remarkably, since starting his European Cup debut away to Perpignan in September 1998, Stringer has missed only two of Munster's last 54 games in the competition, the pool games at home to Harlequins and away to Castres in January 2002. The injury interrupts a run of 27 starts in the cup, this latest rare setback for a durable 5ft 7ins player curtails a sequence of 25 starts.
With Stringer unavailable Munster coach Declan Kidney names three scrumhalves - Mike Prendergast, Frank Murphy and Tomás O'Leary - in his 25-strong squad for Sunday's top-of-the-table clash. Looking ahead to the Sale game, Prendergast has five European Cup appearances, three as a replacement, while Murphy and O'Leary have yet to have any game time in the competition, but O'Leary is possibly the favourite to start against Leinster.
Also included in the squad is Anthon Pitout, who arrived in Cork on Monday, and Gary Connolly. Kidney is expected to name his starting line-up on Friday lunchtime.
MUNSTER SQUAD: Backs: I Dowling, S Payne, A Pitout, B Murphy, J Kelly, G Connolly, T Halstead, R O'Gara, P Burke, F Murphy, T O'Leary, M Prendergast. Fowards: F Pucciarello, M Horan, F Sheahan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll, T Hogan, A Quinlan, D Leamy, D Wallace, S Keogh, A Foley.
