Boost for Leinster as Jamie Heaslip returns to training

Jamie Heaslip returned to training yesterday, pulling on the boots for the first time since the back injury that ended his season in March.

That injury, sustained in the warm-up for the England clash at Aviva Stadium, ruled him out of Leinster’s Champions Cup and Guinness Pro12 semi-finals, and cost him his place on a possible third Lions tour.

He’s since undergone surgery — one of the only serious injuries in his extraordinary professional career — and despite a ‘small setback’ is expected to return around the time of Leinster’s Aviva clash with Munster in October.