Munster say they will give Peter O'Mahony every opportunity to prove his fitness for Saturday's BKT United Rugby Championship semi-final against Leinster (live on RTÉ2, RTÉ Player and RTÉ Radio 1).
The Munster captain is a doubt for Saturday's game at the Aviva Stadium having suffered an elbow injury in last weekend's 14-5 win against the Glasgow Warriors, while hooker Diarmuid Barron is also in danger of missing the game due to a shoulder issue.
The coaching staff will have been reassured to see both players take some part in this afternoon's training session at Thomond Park, having seen RG Snyman, Conor Murray, Malakai Fekitoa and Calvin Nash all ruled out because of concussion.
Forwards coach Andi Kyriacou says they will give the players as much time as they need to recover.
"He [O'Mahony] just did some stuff [in training] in terms of getting himself mobile, moving again and very much connected with what was going on on the field," Kyriacou said.
"We are just going to listen to our medics, we will keep assessing him hour to hour, day to day, and give him as much time as we can to hopefully get him through and get him playing but we have to take the lead off all the medics and ultimately what his body tell us as we roll into the weekend."
The province have rallied late in the season to reach the last four of the URC, with two wins and a draw from their last three games - and all away from home - seeing them set up a semi-final against Leinster, who are chasing a league and European double.
It's 12 years since Munster last beat their main rivals in a knock-out game, and Kyriacou (above) believes it would be a major turning stepping stone for the group if they could turn over Leo Cullen's side this week.
"It would be a huge experience for them. Like we have all season, not to sound like a stuck record, but we just go week to week, every week, and we've pushed hard this week in terms of the learnings we've taken from Glasgow, and are just trying to consistently get better with our players.
"This experience at the weekend is something I'm sure will help them grow and develop and put the squad and team in the best position moving forward.
"We've tried not to pit ourselves against other people. We have been on a bit of an evolution throughout the season, exposing new lads to the way we're playing, with new ideas coming in. It took some time, and has been well documented, it took a while to bed-in as lads got used to the way we play.
"We've been away from home for the last three or four games, and we feel certainly from the South Africa trip and Glasgow game that we're in a good spot.
"They're tough places to go, as is Dublin, and we've given a good account of ourselves in the last three weeks, and look to carry momentum into this game."
Aside from the question marks over O'Mahony and Barron, there are unlikely to be any major surprises over Munster's lineup this weekend, but the same can't be said about their opponents, with Leinster likely to rest their frontline players ahead of next week's Heineken Champions Cup final.
And while Kyriacou admits there's uncertainty around just how their opponents will line out on Saturday, he says Munster will have to focus more on what they can do themselves, rather than what their opponents can do.
"I've got no idea what they have planned. I know they have a very good squad and a lot of depth in the squad, and whoever is out there is going to go 100% for Leinster.
"We're not overly concerned, we're just looking at the trends that Leinster put out there, analysing them and being as best prepared as possible.
"We're trying to focus things on us as much as possible" he added.
Follow Leinster v Munster via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, watch live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player, or listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
Follow Stormers v Connacht via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, or listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
