Joe Schmidt had suggested Kearney, who featured in all five of Ireland’s RBS 6 Nations matches this season, may be available for one of Leinster’s Heineken Cup matches but he is still waiting for his second appearance of the season.

He will face a fitness test on Thursday to see if he can make his return this week against Cardiff Blues and will be more hopeful of making the visit to the Ospreys a week later.

But even if he doesn’t feature in either of those matches, Kearney would have no qualms about turning out for Ireland against the Springboks on November 10.

“In an ideal world, you would like to get a couple of games under your belt, but I'm not going to be too fazed by it,” Kearney told the Irish Independent.

“I came back into an international before the World Cup after being out for nine months and it went okay, so it is something I have done before.

“While ideally I’d be able to get a few games under my belt, if that's not the case then we don't live in a perfect world.”