Jamie Heaslip left the pitch after just six minutes into Leinster's win away to Ospreys on Friday night due to a nasty collision, and initially there were fears that Ireland's deputy captain at the Rugby World Cup would miss the Six Nations opener on February 7th as a result.
Those feats have been eased with Leo Cullen's comments today where he revealed that Heaslip may be in contention to play next week against Bath.
The number eight must first go through the return to play protocol, but Cullen believes that he is likely to feature against Wasps in two weeks time if he is unable to return against Bath.
Jamie took a pretty heavy knock at the start of the game.
He came through pretty quickly after we took him off. I talked to him at the end of the game and he is up an about. We will manage him over the course of the week and see how he is with the return to play protocols.
He has not a head knock in four or five years so it’s been quite a while. We have had a chat there and we will see how he is in the early part of the week.
It sounds like that providing the return to play protocol is met, he'll be fine, which will no doubt be reassuring for Joe Schmidt who would have winced at the footage of Heaslip leaving the pitch on Friday night.
Of course, the big topic of debate in recent weeks has been whether or not Heaslip will lead the team out against Wales in three weeks time, but at least that decision will still be in the hands of the Ireland coach now that it appears that Jamie will be ready to play.
via Independent.ie
