Jordie Barrett may make his Leinster debut as soon as next week’s Champions Cup clash with Bristol Bears.
The New Zealand centre has joined Leinster on a contract until the end of the season but missed the All Blacks’ Autumn Nations Series win over Italy at the weekend with a knee injury.
The 27-year-old had missed the final game of the Rugby Championship with a knee injury but featured this month against England, Ireland and France.
However, Leo Cullen expects the Hurricanes man in camp this week with a view to having him available for their first European tie on Sunday week at Ashton Gate Stadium but Friday night’s URC clash away to Ulster may come too soon.
“He’s [due] in this week, it’s just been back and forth on the phone,” Cullen, who signed a two-year extension with Leinster last week, told RTÉ Sport.
“He was ruled out at the weekend and thankfully it’s not serious, again, we just need to get some eyes on him and make a call as to when he gets up and running fully.
“I think there is a chance, there’s definitely a chance [he’ll play against Bristol] but I’m not 100% but that would be the hope, he’d be up and running pretty much straight away.”
Meanwhile, RG Snyman (above) will be assessed after playing three games with South Africa in the last three weeks.
The lock came on as a replacement for Eden Etzebeth after 29 minutes of the Springboks win over Wales on Saturday.
“He’s due back and we’ll get him assessed and see how he is,” added Cullen.
“He’s played three Test in the last three weeks, he sat on the bench [for the first half against Scotland], played 80 minutes [against England] and then came on quite early [against Wales].
“We’ll touch base.”
Lee Barron, Jack Conan, Jimmy O’Brien, John McKee and Jordan Larmour have all returned to full training after recovering from injury and will be in contention for the trip to Belfast, while Ryan Baird and Jack Boyle are back from ireland camp.
There were no further updates on Dan Sheehan, Rob Russell, Paddy McCarthy and Tommy O’Brien.
Ulster, seventh in the table, beat league leaders Leinster twice in the regular season in the last campaign.
Cullen (above) said: “When you go to Belfast on a Friday night there are certain things that you expect: a vociferous crowd, and a team that will be fully committed.
“They are three from three in their home games this season so we know it’s going to be a serious challenge up there.
“You’ll see two sets of players who are fighting tooth and nail for their respective teams.”
