John Kelly comes into the Munster starting line-up for the game against a strong Leicester Tigers squad - that includes Lions Graham Rowntree, Ben Kay and Martin Corry - at Welford Road (7.45) on Friday.

Kelly was not involved in Munster's last game against Northampton, but his return is very opportune given the injury to Mike Mullins. Mullins is expected to go into a Cork hospital today for surgery on the Achilles injury he sustained last Friday.

Stephen Keogh once again captains the Munster side in an unchanged back-row from the last outing while a decision on who will partner Mick O'Driscoll in the second row will be mad later today (Thurs) after training.

Frank Murphy takes over from Mike Prendergast at scrum-half while Shaun Payne who was originally included in the travelling squad, has been forced to withdraw with a neck strain.

For their part, Leicester Tigers have named an unchanged starting line-up for Friday evening's game. Tigers suffered a 17-22 loss to Connacht, last Friday, but three British & Irish Lions players have been included on an extended replacements' bench for this week.

Munster: Ben Martin, Paul Devlin, John Kelly, Rob Henderson, Mossie Lawlor; Paul Burke, Frank Murphy; Frank Roche, Jerry Flannery, Tony Buckley; AN Other, Mick O'Driscoll; John O'Sullivan, Johnny O'Connor, Stephen Keogh capt.

Replacements (from): Eugene McGovern, Denis Fogarty, Prederico Pucciarello, AN Other, Anthony Foley, Mike Prendergast, Jeremy Manning, Ian Dowling, Trevor Halstead, Brian Touhy, Barry Murphy.

Leicester Tigers

Sam Vesty; Alesana Tuilagi, Dan Hipkiss, Daryl Gibson capt, Tom Varndell; Andy Goode, Harry Ellis; Michael Holford, George Chuter, Alex Moreno; James Hamilton, Leo Cullen; Brett Deacon, Shane Jennings, Will Johnson

Replacements (from): Ephraim Taukafa, Graham Rowntree, Ben Kay, Luke Abraham, Martin Corry, Scott Bemand, Ross Broadfoot, Leon Lloyd, Austin Healey