O’Driscoll along with Ireland team-mates Shane Horgan and Kevin McLaughlin missed Friday’s 15-16 victory at Munster, which saw Leinster move seven points clear at the top of the Magners League.

But with the side Cheika calls ‘the most complete’ in France to come on Friday the Leinster coach is expecting the international trio to be fit and challenging for a place in the starting XV.

“We'd be confident that all of them will play. Brian did some training over the weekend as did Kevin, while Shane will train today (Monday) although he has been doing some off-field stuff,” said Cheika.

"We're taking an extra precaution to get him right for this week, and he'd be pretty confident as well, so there should be no problem there.

“Shane's an experienced player, but it doesn't mean it's an automatic entry because the lads have been playing very well.

“Girvan (Dempsey) has been playing out of his skin while (Rob) Kearney's playing well, so it's going to come down to selection.

“But the fact that he's available for us, all going well this week, will make a lot of difference to the make up of the team.”