Ulster confirm Ireland trio with combined 113 international caps will miss Glasgow Warriors visit
Richie Murphy’s side will be without experience backs for URC match at Affidea Stadium
Ulster have confirmed that Ireland centre Stuart McCloskey will miss their match with Glasgow Warriors this weekend through injury.
The 33-year-old is dealing with a hamstring issue that the Belfast club say will sideline him for “a number of weeks”. That means the 28 times capped international will also likely be out for their EPCR Challenge Cup final against Montpellier in Bilbao next week.
He joins fellow Irish back Jacob Stockdale on the injury list with the 42 times capped winger having recently undergone successful surgery to repair a facial fracture. They will also be without experienced hooker Rob Herring, who has 43 Ireland caps, with the 36-year old back training following a calf issue but not ready for competitive action.
Two injured Glasgow Warriors players ‘close’ to return but Ulster match potentially comes too soon
Rounding out the injury list for the home side ahead of Friday night’s match at the Affidea Stadium are back rower David McCann and centre James Hume.
As for the visitors, their injury issues have been well documented.
Franco Smith was able to welcome back George Horne and Matt Fagerson for last weekend’s 40-17 win over Cardiff at Scotstoun. The return of the two Scotland internationals was a timely boost to help them regain top spot in the URC with one round of regular season fixtures to play.
However, they were without eight other first team players for that fixture. Adam Hastings served the first of a three game suspension while the absences of Gregor Brown, Alex Craig, Scott Cummings and Max Williamson continue to leave them short in the second row.
Jamie Dobie, Charlie Savala and Tavi Tuipulotu rounded out their unavailable player list last Friday night and, assistant coach Roddy Grant has since confirmed that the knocks picked up by Alex Samuel and Rory Darge during the match do not appear to be bad enough to rule them out. He added that Cummings and Brown were ‘close’ but that he wasn’t sure if they’d be ready for this Friday.
Glasgow need to equal or better the results of Stormers and Leinster this weekend to ensure they finish top of the URC at the end of the regular season. Their game in Belfast kicks off at 7:45pm on Friday, May 15 and will be shown live on Premier Sports.
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