Leinster confirm RG Snyman is out for the season after rupturing ACL

Double World Cup winning South African lock RG Snyman will be unavailable to Leinster for the remainder of the season after suffering a ruptured ACL in their recent United Rugby Championship (URC) game against Glasgow Warriors.

It means Leinster will be without Snyman for this week’s Champions Cup round of 16 knockout match against Edinburgh on Sunday in Aviva Stadium [KO: 5.30pm].

With Snyman out Leinster could be light on frontline secondrow players as several others, including Irish secondrow James Ryan, will be assessed later in the week for injury.

Prop Tadhg Furlong, centre Garry Ringrose and back utility Jimmy O’Brien are also in the list for later assessment.

There were no further updates on the injured Jack Boyle, Hugh Cooney, Jordan Larmour, James Lowe, Diarmuid Mangan and Paddy McCarthy.

Elsewhere, Robert Baloucoune underwent “successful” elbow surgery last week and will be sidelined for an unspecified number of weeks according to Ulster’s weekly squad bulletin. The 28-year-old “rising star” of the Six Nations has been sidelined since scoring in Ireland’s win over Scotland to seal the Triple Crown but should seemingly return to Ulster colours before the end of the season.

Baloucoune should also be fit for Ireland’s opening trio of matches in the inaugural Nations Championship against Australia on July 4th in Sydney Football Stadium, Japan on July 11th (a venue to be confirmed) and New Zealand at their Eden Park fortress in Auckland on July 18th.

Michael Lowry sustained a groin injury in training last week and is “currently unavailable for selection”, thus ruling him out of this Saturday’s Challenge Cup Round of 16 fixture against Ospreys at Affidea Stadium (kick-off 8pm).

Other injury doubts for this fixture include James Humphreys (hamstring), Jack Murphy (ribs), Jake Flannery (shoulder) and Jude Postlethwaite (hand). All will have their fitness for selection assessed through training this week.

Sam Crean (knee), Charlie Irvine (lower leg) and Cormac Izuchukwu (concussion) have all resumed full team training and are available for selection.

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