Donal Lenihan believes Tadhg Furlong's fitness will be a decisive factor in whether Leinster can win the Heineken Champions Cup final.
Leo Cullen's side take on Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle on Saturday in Marseille as they look to add a record-equalling fifth crown to their European collection.
Ireland prop Furlong suffered an ankle injury in Leinster's semi-final win over last year's champions Toulouse but the province's senior coach Stuart Lancaster said he was "making good progress" in the build-up to the final, raising hopes that he could feature from the outset.
"Tadhg Furlong, I really hope that he starts because he's a massive figure for Leinster," Lenihan told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
"I think if he does then I can't see anything other than a Leinster win."
In contrast, the former Ireland captain feels that O'Gara will have tough selection decisions on his hands amid injury concerns in the La Rochelle camp.
"When you're building up to a massive game like this, and there are question marks hanging over two or three members of your starting team, I think that could be a huge distraction," said Lenihan.
"We've seen the thing about Ronan O'Gara looking for a hurling glove to protect (Tawera) Kerr-Barlow's hand. He has two broken bones in his hand and if you're a scrum-half, that's not exactly ideal.
"So I'll be intrigued to see what the actual selections are going to be. But I think ROG is in a position where he might have to gamble in one or two positions in terms of selection."
Lenihan also believes the endurance work Leinster's senior players did while more fringe options were involved in United Rugby Championship action in South Africa tips the scales in their favour in what are expected to be soaring temperatures in the south of France.
He said: "They have a massive advantage over other teams in that during that block of three weeks when they'd sent the younger lads off to South Africa, they did a huge block of endurance training and I think that will stand to them again at this point of the year."
Follow Leinster v La Rochelle (Saturday 4.45pm) in the Champions Cup final via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app live or listen live on RTÉ Radio 1.
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