Lowry 'OK' after injury in Leinster loss - Murphy

Michael Lowry was taken off in the first half of Ulster's defeat by Leinster

Ulster head coach Richie Murphy says Michael Lowry is "OK" after the full-back was taken off on a stretcher in Saturday's 41-17 defeat by Leinster.

Lowry required treatment after he tackled Robbie Henshaw in the build-up to Tommy O'Brien's try at the Aviva Stadium.

Murphy says Lowry, 26, was taken to hospital but his scan was "OK".

"Mike is OK. He's been in hospital and had a scan," Murphy told Premier Sports.

"He'll go through all those return-to-play protocols for his head and we'll see how his neck is, but he seems to be OK."

It was a bruising defeat for Ulster in two senses, with a number of players picking up injuries and their aspirations of reaching the United Rugby Championship play-offs also suffering a blow in Dublin.

Centre Stuart McCloskey dropped out of the starting team after picking up an injury in the warm-up, and his replacement Stewart Moore was forced off in the opening 10 minutes.

As well as Lowry's injury, hooker Rob Herring and props Andrew Warwick and Callum Reid also sustained knocks, and Murphy says "there was a lot of disruption" with the injuries.

Murphy admitted Leinster, who top the URC table "are a top-class side" but felt the hosts benefited from a number of 50/50 calls at the scrum and breakdown in the first half.

Dan Sheehan scored a hat-trick off the bench in the second half, and the defeat leaves Ulster outside the top eight with three rounds of fixtures remaining.

Ulster face the Sharks in Belfast next week before trips to Munster and Edinburgh to round out their campaign.

"Over the past number of weeks we have shown a lot of resilience," Murphy added.

"That's growing within the group. The guys are very disappointed in relation to the scoreline.

"We have to dust ourselves down very quickly and get on to Sharks. We knew this was going to be a really tough game and Sharks at home will not be easy.

"We'll have to see who is fit. We picked up quite a lot of injuries today, but we'll dust ourselves down and go again next week."