IT REMAINS VERY unclear when we will be watching rugby again but among the many, many things to look forward to when the sport does get back up and running is return of Dan Leavy.

When the 25-year-old Ireland and Leinster openside suffered a horrific knee injury in his province’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final win over Ulster on 30 March 2019, there were some fears for his future in professional rugby.

Leavy has made great progress since last year. Source: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO

But over a year later, following two bouts of surgery and a whole lot of hard work, Leavy is as excited about the future return of rugby as anyone else. He has lost time to make up for.

While confined to training from home like everyone else, Leavy is now in the final stages of his rehabilitation process and has returned to running with no ill effects.

The 11-times capped Ireland international might have hoped to squeeze in a bit of game time over the coming months and will have to be patient now with rugby on hold, but the fact that he is set for his return to the game after a significant multi-ligament knee injury is throughly exciting for Irish rugby fans.

“For Dan, he has done an unbelievable job along with Karl Denver, who has been the physio doing his rehabilitation with him,” said Guy Easterby, Leinster’s head of rugby operations, on a video call today.

“They’ve done a fantastic job as a team together and I’m sure they’re missing each other. I know they’re video calling quite a lot to look into each other’s eyes!

“Dan was very much at the end of that process, he was very close to the end – not at the end but very close to the end.

“Dan’s [rehab] bits now are the small percentages as opposed to the really big work.

“A lot of that he can do on his own. It’s not like he hasn’t gone through the processes in terms of a weekly schedule of what his rehabilitation looks like.

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“Committing like he has throughout the whole process, he’s been fantastic. It was obviously a very significant injury.

“He isn’t a million miles away at all, Dan, and I think it’s just the final pieces and making sure he’s being kept in touch with, building up his strength a bit more.

“He’s getting the running under his belt and he’s not getting a bad reaction to that, so I’d say it’s very positive from Dan’s end.

“I would expect when we can get back up and playing, it’s more than likely he’s going to be available at that time.”

Meanwhile, Leinster confirmed that number eight Jack Conan is fit again after fully recovering from the foot injury that ended his World Cup last year.

Rory O’Loughlin and Ed Byrne have also returned to full fitness, although Cian Healy [hip], Garry Ringrose [hand], Conor O’Brien [hamstring], and Vakh Abdaladze [back] are still rehabbing their injuries.