Having left fellow Irish club side Munster for Leinster, double World Cup winner Snyman - who has an unfortunate reputation for spending the majority of his time in-between World Cups in the sickbay - arrived at his new team with a foot injury suffered while playing for the Springboks in the Rugby Championship.

The foot injury was only supposed to sideline Snyman for the opening Rugby Championship game against Australia, but he has since missed both the away matches against the Wallabies and the two home Tests against New Zealand.

Speaking in a United Rugby Champions coaches' panel, Cullen said Leinster were hoping Snyman would be fit in time to play in the early rounds of the tournament.

"He injured his foot, it's pretty minor, thankfully," Cullen said.

"So, he is rehabbing with us at the moment. He was out on the side of the pitch, I've just come from a session there, and he was doing a rehab run there so he's making progress. I'm not sure he'll be back for round one, hopefully he'll be back by round two or three."

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