Henson to miss Munster clash

GAVIN HENSON is out of the Ospreys’ Heineken Cup quarter-final against Munster on Sunday week after he was diagnosed with ligament damage to his right ankle yesterday.

The Wales and Lions centre limped off during last weekend’s Anglo-Welsh Cup semi-final against Gloucester and Ospreys physio Chris Towers said last night: “we are predicting a four- to six-week spell on the sidelines before Gavin will be ready for action again.

“Following the MRI scan and specialist consultation on Monday, we can confirm that Gavin has suffered damage to the ligaments on both the lateral and medial sides of his right ankle. Although the injury is not so severe that he will require surgery, he will require a spell of at least two weeks in a walking cast before he can start to gradually get back to normal activity.”

Ulster will still face a potentially strong Ospreys team at Ravenhill in the Magners League on Friday and their ever-thoughtful head coach Matt Williams has been borrowing from his big match hymn- sheet.

“No one expects us to win. Everyone has written us off. Everyone says we can’t do it,” he lamented yesterday as he added two more names to the 22 players that lost to Leinster last week. It’s typical Williams fighting talk in the face of a challenge every bit as big as that of Michael Cheika’s Leinster.

“The Ospreys are a fantastic team, a brilliant team and physically, they are a massive side,” he continued before getting to the important point: “So, this is a week when there is not a lot of pressure on us and that is a good thing.”

It is a good thing, especially with the Friday night crowd in Belfast cheering on the home side. Ulster relish matches like this one, for which outhalf Niall O’Connor and winger Mark McCrea have been added as squad players. Unhappily for Williams his prize bull, yard-maker and defensive tackler in the backrow, Stephen Ferris, remains injured as do backs Bryn Cunningham and Paul Steinmetz.

The Ospreys have not travelled that well to the Irish provinces and have won only once in their last five away games. Their Wales secondrow Ian Gough is also likely to be absent after suffering a haematoma in his hip region. However, he is expected make a recovery in time to face Munster.