Richie Murphy allays fears over Ulster Rugby injury crisis - but two stars set to miss European clash with reigning champions Toulouse

Werner Kok, who left the defeat against Leinster early due to a HIA (Head Injury Assessment), and Zac Ward, injured in an A fixture, have both been passed fit for Sunday’s opening European clash.

Ulster have also drafted Rob Lyttle back into the squad – the winger made 64 appearances for the province, scoring 108 points before his shock retirement announcement in 2023.

“We’ve brought in Rob Lyttle for a couple of weeks, and we’ll see how that progresses,” said Murphy. “Rob is coming in on a training capacity over the next couple of weeks to see exactly where we are with the back three...he came in and fitted in like he was never away.

“I remember him when he was in the Academy when I used to come up as part of my Irish role, so he came in this week and trained really well and will be released back to his club to play at the weekend.

“We feel like we need an experienced back three in the building over these next couple of weeks. Zac is on an IRFU contract at the moment and we’re in conversations with him about going forward from here.”

However, Ben Moxham faces a long spell on the sidelines after suffering a significant knee injury in the defeat to Leinster and will see a surgeon later in the week.

Scrum-half John Cooney is also ruled out of the trip to the Stade Ernest-Wallon but his hamstring problem isn’t as serious as thought.

Jacob Stockdale is unlikely to return to action in the near future.

“Jacob will miss a good number of weeks,” added Murphy. “It’s not clarified how long that will be but we are not expecting to see him anytime soon.”

As well as being defending European champions, Toulouse currently sit top of the French league while Ulster are 10th in the United Rugby Championship.

Murphy feels the side have underperformed in the first seven games.

“It’s probably slightly below where we wanted to be,” he said. “We’ve had a tough run of games.

"We’ve played the top three teams in the league at the moment and we’ve been in South Africa. Between the Cardiff and the Leinster game, we should be at least one better if not two better, but we’re a young side and have our ups and downs and we’ll just try to keep battling away.”

Toulouse have won the European Cup a record six times, but Ulster did win on their last visit to the French city, although they were ultimately eliminated in the two-legged knockout tie.

Murphy is relishing his squad going up against some of the best players in the world.

“Excitement maybe, fear probably a little bit,” he added. “You look at their team and they are probably two to three deep international wise in nearly every position.

“There are things in their game where there is opportunity – it’s just that if you’re good enough to be able to take that.”