MUNSTER AND IRELAND centre Chris Farrell will hope to put a dreadful year on the injury front behind him when he returns to action next week for the province against Connacht.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old is almost back to full fitness but has been ruled out of Saturday\u2019s sold-out clash against arch rivals Leinster at Thomond Park [KO 5.15pm, eir Sport\/Premier Sport].<\/p>\n
2018 has been a largely forgettable year for the Tyrone man who suffered a serious knee injury training with Ireland\u00a0in February just after producing a man of the match display in the Six Nations win over Wales.<\/p>\n
That kept him out of action until November but after making his return off the bench against Zebre and then playing 80 minutes against Edinburgh, he was forced to withdraw just before the start of the home win over Castres in the Heineken Champions Cup.<\/p>\n
His hopes of any more game time in 2018 are over but he will be hoping to hit the ground running when Munster take on Connacht in Galway next week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Johann van Graan said that Farrell and hooker Rhys Marshall \u2014 out since October with a hamstring injury \u2014 are close to returning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey integrated to a bit of team training today, not full on as of yet but hopefully they will be back next week,\u201d the Munster head coach said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChris is pretty close to full fitness but he\u2019s not going to be ready for this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The squad were given a couple of days off for Christmas but van Graan knows they need to deliver after four defeats in a row to their biggest rivals.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThey had a very good start to the game and we had a very good\u00a0second half and there were one or two individual moments that made a difference in that game and I believe it will be the same on the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two quality sides playing against each other and we\u2019ve got most of our squad available for this game and I believe it will come down to two things.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne, each individual player will play to the best of his ability\u00a0for both teams and the team that uses the opportunities and that is something we\u2019d like to improve on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Munster go into this clash having not scored a try in either of their last two games when they went down away to Castres in the Champions Cup and to Ulster in Belfast last weekend, but he said there is no added pressure on them for this one.<\/p>\n