Munster will appeal the red card shown to Alex Nankivell in Saturday's BKT United Rugby Championship win against Connacht on Saturday, in the hope that the centre will be cleared for this week's Investec Champions Cup meeting with La Rochelle.
The New Zealander was shown a red card by referee Craig Evans 25 minutes into Saturday's 30-24 Interpro win after making head contact with Connacht captain Cian Prendergast at a ruck.
Prendergast appeared to lose consciousness in the incident and was taken to Mayo University Hospital before being discharged on Sunday.
Nankivell was sent off following a TMO referral, with Evans saying there were no mitigating factors due to the Munster player not making an attempt to wrap his arm as he entered the ruck.
The province will look to dispute this, with their appeal confirmed by the URC this afternoon. The player will attend an independent disciplinary hearing on Wednesday, which will be chaired by John Kirk (Scotland) with Stefan Terblanche and Neil Snellenburg (both South Africa) completing the three-person panel.
If the decision is upheld, Nankivell will miss Saturday's trip to Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle in the Champions Cup, as well as multiple future games. The 28-year-old was previously shown a red card in Munster's URC semi-final defeat to Glasgow Warriors in June 2024.
Watch Leinster v Harlequins in the Champions Cup on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Listen to live commentary of La Rochelle v Munster (5.30pm) and updates from Leinster v Harlequins (3pm) in the Champions Cup on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
