Jonny Bell's Ulster 'comeback' quip in face of lengthy injury list before crunch Benetton clash

Steven Kitshoff, Rob Herring, Marty Moore, Iain Henderson, Kieran Treadwell, Nick Timoney and Stuart McCloskey missed last week’s win over Cardiff and the province picked up a host of fresh injuries against the Welsh region. Tom O’Toole, Nathan Doak and Jake Flannery all suffered injuries, prompting defence coach Jonny Bell to make a joke about having to come out of retirement.

"I'm the only one that's fit at the minute, I might be making a comeback,” said Bell.

The former centre also confirmed Hume and Kitshoff won’t play again this season.

“Friday night took its toll, a few injuries...obviously James Hume has a significant injury, and we wish him a speedy recovery with that,” he said. "I would hazard a guess that it would be sometime into next season, it's a significant enough injury. That'll be assessed when he goes through the whole medical process, they'll determine the timeline, but he's out for the rest of the season.

“Steven Kitshoff, he's had an MCL injury and that's unfortunately been the end of his time, hugely disappointing for him and his wife. They've decided to move back and get surgery in South Africa, we wish him all the best and no doubt we'll see him in the future in Cape Town. Tom (O'Toole) has taken a bang as well, that's more of a short-term thing, maybe a number of weeks...the medical team will come back with that. Jake (Flannery) took an injury as well, again hard to know the significance, the medical staff are looking at that, it could be a couple of weeks, maybe a bit longer. Marty (Moore) has just been off on the long-term injury list, he's another guy we're just medically supporting and waiting for...a significant number of injuries that have hurt us but we have to manage with the great group we have."

Scott Willson at 21 is the only frontline fit tight head prop but Bell is confident in the squad depth.

"You've got Andy Warwick there, James French, it puts a lot of pressure on Scott Wilson and he's doing a terrific job, but he's still a young man learning his trade,” said Bell. “He's thrown into the frying pan and he's dealing with it well, but he needs our support and the support of all the players around him."

Ulster are 10th in the URC table ahead of Benetton’s visit and will have to finish seventh to guarantee Champions Cup rugby next season if the Sharks win the Challenge Cup.

"They're (Sharks) banking on winning the Challenge Cup and getting that Champions Cup spot, we can only control what we can control,” said Bell. “That's obviously where we want to be, when I was away from Ulster I was in the Challenge Cup a number of years and, look, it's still a competitive cup but nobody would disagree that the Champions Cup is where we want to be. There's a history and a pedigree there and we want to be part of that. We'll have to fight tooth and nail."