Harry Byrne's hopes of earning an Ireland recall have taken a blow, with the out-half ruled out of Saturday's Investec Champions Cup Pool 4 meeting with Stade Francais (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player) due to an ankle injury.
The 24-year-old would have been hoping to catch the eye of Ireland head coach Andy Farrell, who is due to name his squad for the opening rounds of the Six Nations next Wednesday.
With Johnny Sexton retired, and the older Byrne brother Ross currently injured with an arm issue, Harry is among a host of Irish out-halves looking to join Jack Crowley in the Six Nations squad.
Ross' injury presented an opportunity for Harry to get an extended run in the team, but a concussion suffered in the first half of the win against La Rochelle has been followed up by an ankle issue this week, limiting him to just 139 minutes across that period of games.
"He got injured unfortunately in the week, hopefully it's minor enough," Leinster coach Leo Cullen said, after naming a strong starting XV for the meeting with Stade Francais.
Byrne's absence gives Ciarán Frawley another opportunity to audition for the number 10 shirt, while a strong showing from Sam Prendergast could thrust the 20-year-old into contention for a place in Farrell's squad.
"He [Byrne] rolled his ankle, but wasn't in the frame for selection. He's unfortunate, he would likely have been involved."
In better news for both Cullen and Farrell, James Lowe and Tadhg Furlong will make timely returns to action on Saturday.
Lowe will make his first appearance since the World Cup, having been given extra time off to return home to New Zealand before a minor injury delayed his comeback. Furlong is in line for his first appearance since early December, having been stood down following the death of his father.
"It's good timing, you see it across the competition, it's a tough period to navigate with a lot of big games over the Christmas period.
"So, to have some fresh energy in the group, and they've trained the last couple of weeks. They're in good shape and raring to go," Cullen added.
The province are close to full strength, with James Ryan the only nailed-on starter named on the bench as he looks to come back from a minor injury.
It's a fresh Leinster squad, which had been heavily rotated across the Christmas period before the URC took a weekend off last week.
And while Cullen (below) says his side have been able to get some extra work done in that time, he says his team have a point to prove after their disappointing defeat to Ulster on New Year's Day at the RDS.
"We played on the Monday against Ulster, had a few down days to reflect. When you lose, particularly at home, you want a game straight away to get it out of your system, so we've had to wait and wait and wait.
"Stade Francais have played all the way through, and they're a well-coached team, a hugely experienced coaching group there. We're at this stage where we're up against one of the big Top14 teams with a huge budget and resources.
"For us, we just try to prepare as well as we can. We've had long prep going into this game, so it can't come quick enough at this point.
"We felt we let ourselves down a little bit the last day, and it's important we get back to doing what we do well. It'll be great to be back out here in front of a huge crowd.
"Look back to the Sale game [in Round 2], we probably started it a little bit slow and got into our stride as the game wore on, but conceded a couple of late tries. That's the big thing for us, to look for that 80-minute performance really.
"We were frustrated with how we went in our last home game [against Ulster], especially considering we were at a sold out RDS. You want to deliver a better account of ourselves, and that's across management, everybody, because we're very appreciative of the support we had.
"It was a miserable day on 1 January, and it wasn't how we wanted to start 2024. We get another opportunity here tomorrow, and hopefully we have a better 80-minute performance," he added.
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