British and Irish Lions scrum-half Conor Murray close to playing return
Tuesday 16 May 2017 16:39, UK
Conor Murray has given the British and Irish Lions a lift by confirming he could return from a shoulder-related nerve injury this weekend.
Lions head coach Warren Gatland has stated that Murray must prove his fitness for Munster before the squad depart for New Zealand on May 29 if he is to participate in the tour and his first-choice scrum-half could be back imminently.
If Saturday's clash with Connacht proves too early, the Ireland international will make his first appearance since the penultimate round of the RBS Six Nations in the Guinness PRO12 semi-final in a fortnight's time.
"I'm good, finally," he said. "I've been training with the lads for the last couple of weeks and trained on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
"I've been doing gradual return-to-play contact and yesterday (Wednesday) I did full contact, tackling people and taking proper hits, getting tackled myself and feeling pretty good.
"Hopefully, I'll be playing really soon. Potentially I'll be involved this weekend, we'll wait and see how we go. It's pretty positive.
"I would put a good bet on being back for the semi-final. With the way I've been progressing over the last couple of weeks, it would suggest that I'm ready to play."
Murray was forced to miss Ireland's victory over England in Dublin in the climax to the Six Nations and Munster's march into the Champions Cup semi-finals, in which they lost to Saracens.
"Initially we thought I'd be back a lot sooner and with the uncertainty around the nerve injury, I was pretty worried," Murray said.
"A nerve injury is not like a muscle injury where you're told you'll be back in four weeks and you're back in four weeks. It's a little bit of an unknown.
"Nerves are sensitive, they can come back in a week or can take six or seven weeks, or they can take longer. Thankfully I'm at a stage where my strength is back."
