Leinster have been boosted by the timely return from injury to full training this week of Andrew Porter, Garry Ringrose and Dan Leavy ahead of Saturday’s first round game of the United Rugby Championship in the Aviva Stadium against the Vodacom Bulls (kick-off: 5.15pm - live on TG4 and URC TV).
Porter has recovered from the toe injury which ruled him out of the British and Irish Lions squad for their tour to South Africa last June.
Leavy has been sidelined since January after undergoing an operation to repair cartilage in his knee four months into his comeback from the knee injury he suffered in the 2018-19 Champions Cup quarter-final against Ulster and which ruled him out for 18 months.
Ringrose also had a procedure on a troublesome shoulder injury after missing out on Lions selection.
In addition Cullen has confirmed that Nick McCarthy (foot) and Ciarán Frawley (shoulder) have also returned to full training this week and are available for selection.
Conor O’Brien, Jamison Gibson-Park, Max Deegan and James Lowe, all of whom missed last season’s finale through injury, also came through last weekend’s pre-season warm-up game against Harlequins with no issues and are expected to train as normal this week.
Against all of that, flanker Josh Murphy (calf) and outhalf Harry Byrne (foot) will both miss the Bulls game with minor injuries while there was no new update available on Jordan Larmour (groin), Dave Kearney (ankle), Michael Milne (calf), Will Connors (knee), Thomas Clarkson (hamstring), Tommy O’Brien (hamstring) and Jack Dunne (ankle).
