Shoulder injury rules Humphreys out of Ospreys clash

Ulster outhalf Ian Humphreys has been forced to withdraw from the starting team to face the Ospreys tomorrow at the Liberty Stadium after he suffered a recurrence of a shoulder injury picked up against Cardiff last week.

Humphreys emerged during the week as an injury concern along with Darren Cave who has suffered an unfortunate return of the hamstring injury that ruled him out for most of last season.

While Cave was left out of the match day 23, it was initially thought that Humphries had made a full recovery and he was named as starting flyhalf for tomorrow’s game.

As a result of this late change, Paddy Jackson is promoted to start in the number 10 jersey and development player James McKinney will take Jackson’s place on the bench.

McKinney (20), who plays his club rugby with Queen’s University, will make his competitive debut if he takes to the pitch tomorrow.

Ulster: J Payne; C Gilroy, N Spence, L Marshall, I Whitten; P Jackson, P Marshall; D Fitzpatrick, A Kyriacou, J Cronin, L Stevenson, D Tuohy, P Wannenburg, C Henry, R Diack.

Replacements: N Brady, P McAllister, A Macklin, T Barker, W Faloon, B McIlroy, J McKinney, A D'Arcy.