Ulster's Ethan McIlroy relieved to be back playing regular rugby after horror injury

The utility back was attempting to score a try when he was tackled by Munster’s Shane Daly.

McIlroy was knocked unconscious, suffered a facial fracture and was rushed to hospital.

Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t have much recollection of what happened.

“I don’t remember much of the exact incident,” he said. “It was a tough bang to take but I was looked after really well on the night.

"The staff, physios, the doctor, whatever was coming in and helped me on the way and got me into hospital and got everything sorted.

“There was no rush to get back in and I had a bit of a fracture in my eye, so no rush to get me back in concussion-wise with the normal routine to get back in, so I had plenty of time to get back on my feet and on into shape and get my running in and physical aspect stuff in.

"But there were no real symptoms after that or problems with me that any of this was real bad, but hopefully try and avoid those in the future anyway,” McIlroy added.

“There was no rush for contact because of the eye socket and I had weeks and weeks to get back onto my feet and get back into contact, and I felt fully confident getting back in there and building my way back into a game scenario.

“This season before the injury I felt really good again on the pitch and the injury was a bit of a setback. It didn’t really dampen my confidence and I felt confident going back into these recent games.”

Ulster are currently seventh in the URC table and McIlroy knows they will have to play better in Cape Town on Saturday against the Stormers than they did in last week’s defeat against the Sharks.

He said: “There is a bit of disappointment in the group. No one in professional sport wants to be losing games, you just have to park that. It’s part of the game that you lose matches sometimes.

“You have to refocus onto the next task and you can’t be carrying any of that disappointment in. You review and improve but as far as the mood, you just bring a positive mood into the next week and build on that from there for the game that’s coming.

“The Stormers will be quite similar in the way they play,” McIlroy continued. “They are big, physical and they like to exploit those small attacking kicks like the Sharks did with us a bit.

“They’ve got explosive fast backs, big forwards and they defend quite similarly as they defend with line speed just like the South African national team, so we’ll see similar picture.

"We need to tidy up some of our things, a bit more accuracy and more on the same page this week.

“We’re going to clear things up in meetings and go over those things on the pitch and know exactly what we’re doing and how to do it.”

Captain Iain Henderson misses the game due to illness.