McFadden's stop-start season now faces a citing headache ahead of European decider

Fergus McFadden’s stop-start season is set for another potential lay-off after the Leinster back was cited for an incident in his team’s PRO14 loss at Ulster last Saturday. 

The 32-year-old hasn’t featured in any of Leinster’s eight matches on route to the May 11 Champions Cup final versus Saracens, but he won’t even feature in a selection debate for Newcastle if he is banned following what happened at Kingspan Stadium.

A disciplinary committee has been appointed to meet on Wednesday to consider the citing complaint that refers to an incident involving Ulster’s No8 Sean Reidy in the 13th minute of the round 21 league fixture in Belfast.

The player has been reported by the citing commissioner in charge for infringement of Law 9.12 (A player must not physically abuse anyone) - Striking with the head. 

Only recently back in action following his latest injury, McFadden has featured in five of Leinster’s last six PRO14 matches as a starter. 

However, he failed to make the cut in his province’s European knockout stage matches, Leo Cullen deciding to start Adam Byrne and Dave Kearney on the wing versus Ulster in the quarter-finals and then opt for Jordan Larmour and James Lowe in the semi-final against Toulouse.

McFadden has played in Leinster’s European final wins in 2011 and 2012, but he missed last year’s decider against Racing 92 in Bilbao following an injury suffered in the semi-final win over Scarlets in Dublin. 

A ban could also see McFadden miss the run-in to Leinster’s PRO14 title defence, which starts with a May 18 semi-final at the RDS versus the winners of next Saturday’s semi-final in Limerick between Munster and Treviso. 

It was only a matter of weeks ago that McFadden was on the receiving end of a head strike as Cheetahs prop Ox Nche was banned for eight weeks.

The South African was yellow carded at the time, but was subsequently cited for striking McFadden with the shoulder. 

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