Ireland and Connacht playing 'wait and see' on Mack Hansen

Mack Hansen remains sidelined for Connacht with a shoulder injury ahead of their final round BKT URC clash against Leinster on Friday night.

The Ireland wing hasn't played since dislocating his shoulder against Munster on New Year's Day.

Connacht had hoped that the 26-year-old would feature before the end of the regular season but the game at the RDS (7.35pm) has come too soon for the Australian native, who has scored nine tries in 21 Ireland appearances.

"Still no Mack and I don't expect him to be available for Leinster either," said head coach Pete Wilkins, who will also be without scrum-half Matthew Devine (ribs).

"It's a week-to-week prospect but he's not back to the stage where he can be doing his full return to contact work yet, to test out the shoulder.

"There's no panic but it’s frustrating for him and it’s frustrating for us because we’d prefer to have him available."

Asked about Hansen's chances of featuring in Ireland's summer tour of South Africa, with Tests on 6 and 13 July, Wilkins said: "The honest answer is I don't really have a hard timeline for him.

"It's been very much open-ended for the last six weeks, which has been frustrating but it's just where he finds himself at with the injury.

"So there's nothing to suggest that he wouldn't make it back for the play-offs or the summer tour, but the experience of the last month or so means that we won't take anything for granted and we'll just wait and see."

Connacht, who will welcome back Shane Jennings and Denis Buckley, sit in tenth place in the table and need a bonus-point win to sneak into the play-offs, a finish that requires results from the Benetton-Edinburgh and Stormers v Lions Saturday games to go their way.

"The mentality is positive and it is last-chance