Leinster supremo Leo Cullen says dealing with Covid is an on-going issue as the Blues had three senior players test positive in the build-up to tomorrow's Champions Cup opener against Bath.
The Blues, like Munster before them, are remaining tight-lipped on the identity of their players missing due to the virus to the extent that any fresh injury news has been kept under wraps.
“It’s always concerning," said Cullen. "Every day we’re in here, every one outside in society at the moment (is the same).
"From a personal point of view, I’ve young kids in school and, one of my kids in particular, in the pod, there was someone out with Covid so it always feels like it’s very very close at the moment.
"A couple of guys this week, it is what it is, thankfully they’re OK, we just manage them through. We’ve had some cases over the last while.
"I think back to last Christmas and that was quite a messy period, we lost a couple of people at that stage, particularly around the close contact bit as well."
Already the likes of Johnny Sexton and Jack Conan were out through injury, and Robbie Henshaw is missing this week, with Ciarán Frawley replacing the Lions centre.
However Cullen believes Leinster have the squad depth to deal with any crisis situation.
"We’re learning all the time, how we best manage it," he said.
"We do all we can about how to minimise the risk and even this week, extra testing and all the rest to make sure we’re covering all the bases as best we can.
"So yeah, it’s something that we have to deal with there are other teams out there in a much more challenging scenario than we are, it’s fair to say.
"We’ve got a big group of players registered for Europe this year, way more than we would have had in the past so that certainly allows the teams much more flexibility as well.
"You know we’ve a lot of people through being tested and for the most part guys are OK. Thankfully even the guys who are the cases, the symptoms are very very mild, generally speaking, which is good. "
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