'There's no correlation between injuries' - Graham Rowntree plays down talk of Munster injury 'crisis'

Munster head coach Graham Rowntree has played down the extent of his side's injury troubles, and insists the province’s fitness issues are simply down to bad luck.

Peter O’Mahony and Oli Jager are the latest to be ruled out of Saturday’s big BKT United Rugby championship Interpro with Leinster at Croke Park, with O’Mahony already a doubt for Ireland’s Test against New Zealand next month due to a hamstring issue, while Jager is also set to miss this weekend with a neck injury.

The province’s squad update on Tuesday morning made for grim reading with Alex Nankivell, Tom Ahern, Mike Haley, Billy Burns, Shane Daly and Ruadhan Quinn all either carrying injuries this week or stepping up their recovery from injuries.

However, Rowntree clarified that he was optimistic that Haley, Ahern and Nankivell would be available for the trip to Croke Park, while he was confident others would be available again next month.

"I’d say Mike will be alright," Rowntree said of Haley, who departed the second half of Saturday’s win against Ospreys with a leg contusion.

"He got a bang on his leg but we looked after him.

"Billy [Burns] I’m not so hopeful on, I’ll be honest with you there and I’m certainly not going to push him and bring him back when he’s not ready to come back.

"The others you mentioned [Nankivell and Ahern] are certainly back in the mix.

"Rory Scannell, Shane Daly, Pady Patterson are all coming back in November. We’ve got Diarmuid Kilgallen, Liam Coombes, Thaakir Abrahams, Peter O’Mahony (below), they’ll be back at some point in November which is only weeks away.

"So this 'crisis’, we’ve lost a few bodies but certainly everybody should be back on deck by the end of November from the recent injuries."

The reaction to this slew of injuries so