HEINEKEN CUP SEMI-FINAL
Venue: Estadio Anoeta, San Sebastian Date: Sunday, 2 May Kick-off: 1515 BST Coverage: Live scores on BBC Sport website
O'Connell has been unable to train for six weeks
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Munster captain Paul O'Connell has been ruled out of Sunday's Heineken Cup semi-final against Biarritz in San Sebastian because of a groin injury.
The 30-year-old lock O'Connell has not played since Ireland's defeat by Scotland in the Six Nations.
However, Keith Earls, Doug Howlett, Ian Dowling and Nick Williams have recovered from injury and are named in Munster's 26-man squad.
Biarritz will be without Damien Traille, who has a shoulder injury.
The France star aggravated an old shoulder injury in Saturday's home defeat by Clermont and may require surgery.
O'Connell has not trained with Munster for six weeks and has visited a specialist in Liverpool about his condition, known as Osteitis pubis.
"Paul hasn't played for us since January, so it's a fair block of time since he's trained with us or been anywhere near us on the training pitch," said Munster coach Tony McGahan.
"We're well and truly comfortable with that.
"For this particular week he's just not ready - to be out for that length of time he needs to have trained and next week's game is on a Sunday so that means he won't train until next Wednesday.
"It's a very mysterious symptom he has that we really can't get real clarity on."
McGahan will announce his starting team and replacements on Friday.
Biarritz: TBC
Munster (from): Marcus Horan, Tony Buckley, Julien Brugnaut, John Hayes, Damien Varley, Jerry Flannery, Mick O'Driscoll, Billy Holland, Donncha O'Callaghan, Alan Quinlan, David Wallace, Nick Williams, James Coughlan, Niall Ronan, Tomas O'Leary, Peter Stringer, Ronan O'Gara, Paul Warwick, Lifeimi Mafi, Jean de Villiers, Tom Gleeson, Doug Howlett, Denis Hurley, Ian Dowling, Keith Earls, Scott Deasy.
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