Munster head-coach Johann van Graan says they'll be carefully managing Joey Carbery's return in the coming weeks.
The Ireland out-half put a year of ankle injury misery behind him by coming off the bench in the Reds' win against Cardiff in the Guinness PRO14 last weekend.
Having coming through 17 minutes against Cardiff, the 25-year-old could be in line for more game-time this weekend but van Graan insists they won't be taking any risks with his recovery.
“It was great for him and he’s still got a journey ahead of him now,” the Munster coach said of his plans for Carbery for the remainder of the season.
“We’ll take our time with Joey, each week will be different with him. Just to put it into context, he has only done squad training up until Friday night which is an actual game scenario where he can get hit blindly, that he’s actually got to go out and do something where it’s not training.
“He recovered pretty well from that game. We said all along that we will take it week by week with Joey. It’s firstly how he feels, then taking the guidance from the medical and athletic performance teams.
“There’s also the bigger picture – it’s going to be no good to anybody if we just throw him in straight away in terms of minutes. He’ll take his time over the coming weeks.
“Within that context, I’ll do what’s best for Joey, the team, and all 10s involved.”
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