Munster captain Peter O’Mahony is in a race to be ft for Saturday’s pool deciding Heineken Champions Cup clash with Exeter Chiefs (kick-off 5.30pm).
The inspirational flanker had a scan this morning on the rib injury sustained during the 41-15 defeat of Gloucester and head coach Johann van Graan says the chances of O’Mahony featuring on Saturday are "50-50, at best".
O'Mahony was replaced in the 45th minute by Billy Holland at Kingsholm Stadium.
Speaking further to RTÉ Sport, Van Graan said: "We will await the results of the scan, but Peter is in a lot of pain. We will give him as long as he needs to make the right recovery.
"At this stage it's a 50-50 chance. We would love to have available at the weekend, if he's not, the next man in will have to do a job.
"He's in a lot of pain. We'll give him as long as he needs."
As to who might step in, the coach added: "Chris Cloete will be available. Fineen Wycherly could also step up and we could move Tadhg (Beirne) to the flank and Tommy (O'Donnell) to the blindside flank.
"We've got options available - but our number one option is our captain Peter. He is an inspirational leader."
Brian Scott (foot), James Cronin (leg), Jack O’Donoghue (knee), Dave O’Callaghan (foot) and JJ Hanrahan (hip) will all be assessed as the week progresses.
All attentions have switched to the task of defeating the Chiefs and securing a potential home quarter-final.
Munster will be hoping that Montpellier can beat Edinburgh away next weekend in order to get a home quarter-final.
All of the latest news from the Munster Rugby camp ahead of their crunch European Champions Cup meeting with Exeter on Saturday. #RTERugby pic.twitter.com/rqwEZMNQja
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) January 14, 2019
A win for Rob Baxter's team, while denying Munster a bonus point, would be enough to make the knock-out stages as they would have a better head-to-head record, having drawn the opening game against Van Graan's men at Sandy Park.
Follow Munster v Exeter (kick-off 5.30pm, Saturday) via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the News Now app or listen to live national radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
