Cheika remains cautious as O'Driscoll returns to squad
The 26-year-old centre suffered two back spasms in training recently and that interrupted his recovery from the shoulder injury that has sidelined him for the last six months. However, Cheika said yesterday O'Driscoll had been given the all clear on Monday.
The former Lions captain was yesterday named in the squad for the first time this season in a panel for the two games against Ulster at Ravenhill on St Stephen's Day and the New Year's Eve clash with Munster at the RDS.
"I think we'll get a pretty good idea as to whether or not he'll be in the match 22 from training today or Friday," said Cheika. "It's not like we're trying to keep anything a secret. He'll do some contact work tomorrow and then we'll know.
"It's all about confidence as a player. We're not short-sighted when it comes to any of our players and Brian is no exception. You've got to look at the long-term situation."
O'Driscoll's imminent return is timely for Leinster after the disappointment of their Heineken Cup defeat away to Bourgoin last Saturday.
The result leaves them needing two wins - and maybe even two bonus points - from their last two games at home to Glasgow and away to Bath in January if they are to make the knock-out stages.
"Definitely, it's good to have him back in the group. He's been back training with the squad for verging on a month now.
"Like I said all along, it's going to be up to him and how he feels. We've named a squad there to cover the two matches because they're quite close together. We'll probably have to maximise our resources."
Leinster approach their Christmas double header with no fresh injury concerns while their Irish internationals will return from their Lanzarote training camp tomorrow.
The workload might be a large one over the holidays but, after the defeat in France last weekend, it's probably for the best that the province will be back in action come Monday.
Though they again impressed with ball in hand last weekend, Leinster were ultimately undone by their own mistakes - a habit that has proven costly on more than one occasion this season.
"We discussed it as a team, about how we're progressing as far as our style of play is concerned," said Cheika. "You can always look at excuses and say we shouldn't have made that mistake, that we should have been more street-wise - which I would accept.
"But, to play this attacking style our defence has to be A1. Mistakes made at the start of the game put us under a lot more pressure than we needed to be."
With a little bit of luck, Leinster could have found themselves sitting atop of Pool Five this Christmas, but the narrow defeats to Bath and Bourgoin look like proving fatal to their hopes of qualification for the quarter-finals.
So the Celtic League takes on added importance in the province's plans and, in Ulster, they face a side four points and two places ahead of them in the table.
With their own European ambitions punctured by the defeat to Saracens, Ulster will be eager to regain momentum. With Ravenhill likely to be packed to the gills, it promises to be another stern test for Cheika's troops.
"I think Ulster have had a pretty good campaign in Europe, to be honest," said the Aussie when asked his opinion on Mark McCall's side. "They've had a pretty tough pool but they've got that uncanny knack to always be in the game.
"I feel they're a very well coached side. They've got a good orchestrator in Humphreys. There's a lot of respect from our point of view for their style of game."
: R McCormack, R Corrigan, D Blaney, B Blaney, W Green, E Byrne, A Byrnes, B Williams, B Gissing, M O'Kelly, C Jowitt, N Ronan, K Gleeson, E Miller, J Heaslip. Backs: B O'Riordan, G Easterby, J Hepworth, G Brown, R Kearney, S Horgan, F Contepomi, G D'Arcy, K Lewis, B O'Driscoll, E Hickey, G Dempsey, B Burke.
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