Tadhg Furlong misses Bath clash but 'good to go' says Leo Cullen

Leo Cullen says some of the Ireland players who won't feature against Bath tomorrow may stay with the province for next weekend’s match against Stormers.

Tadhg Furlong, who made a return from a three-month injury lay-off against La Rochelle last weekend, is not in the 23 for their Investec Champions Cup match at Aviva Stadium on Saturday (5.30pm).

Ireland's interim head coach Simon Easterby named a 36-man panel for the Six Nations earlier this week with the suggestion that hooker Dan Sheehan and wing James Lowe would travel to Portugal to join with the Ireland squad following the Stormers game.

Cullen said today that 32-year-old Furlong, just back from a hamstring injury, could also be retained with that match in mind.

Ireland begin their campaign against England on 1 February and Ryan Baird, Jack Boyle, Ciarán Frawley are the other international squad members who aren’t involved in tomorrow’s Pool 2 clash for Leinster.

"Even though there was nothing major from the [La Rochelle] game, bumps and bruises, you are trying to make an assessment on guys," Cullen (above) told RTÉ Sport.

"Dan Sheehan, he’s very close. We are going to have conversations after this weekend in terms of what Ireland want.

"We’ve a game next week and some of those guys who haven’t featured in this game will possibly feature.

"It depends on how individuals within the other teams have come through.

"[Tadhg] is in that conversation. He did well to get through the game. Tadhg is good to go. That will be a call that Ireland make.

"Dan Sheehan and James Lowe will go into that mix as well. What they want to do in terms of game time next week versus guys travelling.

"[It’s Ireland’s] call. We’ll see how the weekend plays out.

"There are a couple of guys who are not in