Conor Murray’s availability for Munster’s Champions Cup quarter-final is in serious doubt

He's in a race against time to be fit.

Conor Murray is a doubt for Munster's Champions Cup quarter-final against Toulouse on Saturday. The Limerick man suffered a 'stinger' injury to his shoulder in Ireland's 22-9 loss to Wales at the Principality Stadium a few weeks ago. Murray had to be substituted in the game and he also missed out on Ireland's win over England on the final day of the championship. Munster's Ireland contingent who had featured heavily during the Six Nations, had a week off last week but they have now all returned to training at their UL base. According to Munster Rugby, Murray will be monitored by Munster's medical staff this week. He will be given every opportunity to prove his fitness this week ahead of their crucial match on Saturday. Rassie Erasmus was interviewed on Monday and he gave an update on Murray which will be of a concern to Munster fans.

"We'll give him a chance until Friday, Saturday to recover," Erasmus admitted. "He's much better than last week. Last week he was off - five or six of the boys didn't play against Zebre for their rest week. "He's definitely improved a lot, he's going to train (yesterday) in certain parts of the session. Hopefully, he gets the function and power back to play on Saturday. We'll give him until Saturday morning."

Murray didn't take any contact during Monday's training session which will be a concern. The province generally have a policy whereby if you don't train on the Tuesday or complete two sessions during the week, then you will not be involved at the weekend. However, due to Murray's importance to this Munster team, that policy will be broken to give the 27-year-old every opportunity to be available against Toulouse.

"Our policy is normally that if you can't train on the Tuesday or at least two sessions in the week, we're not going to play you on Friday or Saturday, even if you're an international player. "It is a tricky injury. It isn't something that is serious that can do more harm if he plays but he must be pain-free, he must have full function and range in his shoulder and that affects his passing. It's a waiting game."

Munster fans will have their fingers crossed this week that Murray can prove his fitness because his absence would be a huge blow to their ambitions of progressing through to the semi-finals.