Gilroy and Fitzpatrick could miss Ulster game

Ireland duo Craig Gilroy and Declan Fitzpatrick are major doubts for Ulster’s winner-takes-pool trip to Leicester Tigers this weekend but their Test comrades Simon Zebo and Conor Murray will be fit for Munster’s home Heineken Cup tie with Edinburgh.

Both Murray and Zebo showed no reaction to their respective knee and foot injuries following their returns from injury last Saturday at Gloucester with Ireland scrum-half Murray playing 80 minutes and wing Zebo ending a 12-week spell on the sidelines with 12 minutes off the bench at Kingsholm.

Ulster wing Gilroy suffered a broken nose and concussion in his province’s victory over Montpellier at Ravenhill on Friday and was due to see a specialist last night. Also concussed in that game was tighthead prop Fitzpatrick. A late decision will be made on their participation in Saturday’s Welford Road showdown. However, Tommy Bowe will not recover from a groin injury in time.

Munster were fortunate to report no injury concerns from their victory against Gloucester and will see forwards Donnacha Ryan (knee) and Sean Dougall (ankle) return to limited training this week, while wing Andrew Conway also returns to training having withdrawn from Munster A’s game with Nottingham last Friday with a groin problem.

That game at St Mary’s RFC saw in-form centre Ivan Dineen suffer an ankle sprain, though, which will rule him out “for the next few weeks”, a Munster medical update reported.

Of Munster’s longer-term injured, hooker Mike Sherry, out for the rest of the season with a cruciate knee injury, yesterday underwent shoulder repair surgery while wing Luke O’Dea had the cast on a broken thumb removed.

Meanwhile Leigh Halfpenny, man of the series in the Lions series win over Australia last summer, has won the Rugby Union Writers’ Club Player of the Year Award for 2013.

The Welsh full-back picked up the Pat Marshall Trophy at a dinner in London last night to add to his collection of accolades since the tour.

Past winners of the award include Martin Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson, Sam Warburton, Jonah Lomu and Lawrence Dallaglio.

The 25-year-old scored 49 points in the three Lions Test matches, breaking Neil Jenkins’ record for most points in a series including 21 in the 41-16 third Test win in Sydney.

Lions coach Warren Gatland won the Special Award for lifetime achievement.