Heading east?

Jordi Murphy could be on his way to Japan to link up with Ireland with the Ulster back-row withdrawing from their squad this evening ahead of their PRO14 opener with Ospreys at Kingspan.

Ulster Tweeted in the last hour that Murphy has been withdrawn from the squad with no mention of any injury. And with Jack Conan potentially carrying an injury – Murphy could be set to fly east.

Conan hurt his foot during the week, with scrum coach Greg Feek providing a not so positive update on the back-row today.

“At that this stage, it’s just a wait and see,” said Feek.

“We’re going to get some opinions on that over the next couple of days and then go from there.

“It’s a little bit of a setback at this stage but I think once we get the game out of the way and we get the reports in from medical and the S&C, we’ll probably have some more information on that. Probably after the game, I’d say.”

Watch this space.