A cut above - Hansen opens up on head injury

Mack Hansen and the rest of the Connacht squad that beat Ulster have all been confirmed fit and ready to go for Saturday's clash with DHL Stormers.

The Westerners’ 15-10 victory in Belfast on Friday night saw them book a BKT URC semi-final against the defending champions in Cape Town.

Monday’s medical update was short and sweet and the province confirmed that all 23 players would be good to travel.

The party is due to land in South Africa on Wednesday morning after a short stop-off in Doha.

Ireland wing Hansen clashed heads with team-mate John Porch in the 27th minute and needed stitches and passed a head injury assessment before returning the fray at the start of the second half.

It turns out the medics had their work cut out; a post on Instagram showed in graphic detail a deep cut to the 25-year-old's forehead.

"They stitched it, our doc Enda [Devitt] is pretty good with his hands," said Hansen.

"He stitched it up nice and quick and was able to fit in that and the HIA.

"I really didn't know what was going on. It wasn't that I was concussed or anything but it was just a really, really deep sting.

"It just stung heaps, like I got stung by a couple of bees, I don't really know. I think that's the best way to describe it.

"Then I felt blood coming down and it wasn't until after...they took my headgear off and the three doctors were like, 'oh, Jesus' and I was like, 'that can't be great'.

"They asked did I want to take a photo and I said yeah, and when they took it I was like, 'oh, show us the photo' and they were like, 'no, we'll show you after the game'.

"I understand why now because it was a deep sting, a deep cut. John Porch has a hard head, he's come off unscathed...he's already ugly enough so he didn't really need another [mark].