Tadhg Furlong 'not a million miles away' from Ireland return

Leo Cullen is confident Tadhg Furlong will feature for Ireland soon and possibly against Wales in round three of the Guinness Six Nations.

The Leinster tighthead has played just once, against La Rochelle in January, since mid-October after suffering a calf injury and missed the victories over England and Scotland.

In Furlong's absence, Connacht’s Finlay Bealham has proven an able deputy while fellow Leinster loosehead Thomas Clarkson appeared twice off the bench.

Simon Easterby’s men, top of the table, have a two-week lay-off until they head to Cardiff on 22 February and 32-year-old Furlong, who was sent home from the team's warm-weather training camp to see a specialist last month, could be in the reckoning.

"He’s okay now, Tadhg, well, he’s getting closer," Leinster head coach Cullen told RTÉ Sport.

"He’s in the building today, he’s training, rehabbing away so yeah, he’s not a million miles away.

"I’m not sure what [Ireland's] plan will be, whether they’ll get him for Wales or leave him for another couple of weeks after that but hopefully he’ll feature before the end of the Six Nations."

Cullen said Ireland squad players who haven’t seen game time in the championship Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Ciarán Frawley, Jimmy O'Brien, and Jamie Osborne may feature in the URC against the Ospreys on Friday night (7.35pm).

"They are all in the building anyway so here’s hoping they get through the week," he said.

"There’s a few different factors here because Ireland want to have a plan as well so they can get some meaningful training done later in the week.

"Hopefully most of those guys will feature with us, that’s the plan at this stage. We just need to be ready to adjust if something changes, which is always the way this time of year, so we