It’s been an attritional weekend for the Irish provinces as they prepare for the latest round of inter-provincial derbies.

Munster and Leinster have issued squad updates ahead of this Saturday’s showdown at the Aviva Stadium.

Munster captain Peter O’Mahony has shown no ill effects from his return to action after 50 weeks out of action but Collie O’Shea and Andrew Conway will have to follow the return to play protocols this week.

Rory Scannell and Jack O’Donoghue are set to return to training, but second-row Jean Kleyn is set to visit a specialist this week for scans on an ankle injury and Dave O’Callaghan is facing several weeks out with a shoulder problem.

For Leinster, Fergus McFadden and Dave Kearney are both set to miss this weekend’s game as a result of injuries they suffered during Saturday’s win in Cardiff.

Sean O’Brien, Rob Kearney and Robbie Henshaw will all be re-introduced to full training this week but there’s no indication that they’ll be available this weekend.

The biggest blow of the weekend is for Connacht’s Matt Healy who suffered a fractured hand during the early stages of Friday’s win over Edinburgh and the winger could now be a doubt for Ireland’s November Internationals.

Tom McCartney and Denis Buckley will also miss this weekend’s game against Ulster.

However, Connacht have been boosted by the news that academy graduates Sean O’Brien, James Connolly, Peter Robb and Caolin Blade have all signed new deals that will keep them in Galway up until 2018.

Ukrainian-born Clontarf prop Ivan Soroka has also been handed a contract following the forced retirement of Nathan White.