'It's a tough one when you hear the words being said out loud' - Cullen pays tribute to Leavy

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has paid tribute to Dan Leavy, who on Tuesday announced his retirement from the game at the age of 27.

The Ireland flanker suffered a horrific knee injury in March 2019 and despite a valiant effort to return to the top level, after playing 16 times since coming back in December 2020, was forced to admit defeat.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow's Heineken Champions Cup round-of-16 clash against Connacht, the Leinster head coach told RTÉ Sport about Leavy’s decision to call it a day.

"If you wind the clock back it's three years now since the actual injury itself so I think there was a realisation at that point it was such a significant injury," he said.

"Dan has applied himself unbelievably well but he's never been unfortunately able to get back to that point where he was at that point in time.

"So there would be lots of different conversations, he got back for a period if you remember, went for surgery again and he battled his way back again.

"We've been keeping a very, very close eye on him, regular communication with how he's going and everyone's done everything they can so from a medical point of view here, the care that Dan has, Dan how he's applied himself...that conversation has been very, very open and to the club's credit again, they've tried to back him as much as possible and try to do what's the right thing by him.

"Even still, knowing what we know and everything that has gone through, it has been tough for Dan, trying to do everything he possibly can to get back.

"So we're all devastated for him here.

"He's such a great character, he really is, but he only told guys here on Monday, the rest of the players.

"He might have had some individual conversations with guys prior to that but in terms of