TADHG FURLONG, JAMISON Gibson-Park, and Robbie Henshaw are set to return from injuries to be available for selection for Ireland’s clash with Scotland in two weekends’ time.
The Leinster trio have missed Ireland’s first three games of the Six Nations with injuries but are in line to make their comebacks next time out as Andy Farrell’s side chase a Grand Slam.
Furthermore, it’s expected that captain Johnny Sexton and influential centre Garry Ringrose will also recover from the injury issues that kept them out of Saturday’s win against Italy in time to face the Scots.
With loosehead prop Cian Healy having recovered from his hamstring injury to take part in Ireland’s warm-up in Rome last weekend, Ireland’s injury situation is beginning to look far more positive than has been the case during this championship so far.
That said, there was a new injury concern on Saturday as tighthead prop Finlay Bealham limped off in the first half with a twisted knee. Ireland are expected to provide an update on him this afternoon.
Bealham has been impressive in stepping up in Furlong’s absence and Tom O’Toole has done well off the bench, but the return of the Wexford man will be a boost for Ireland as he joins several team-mates in being available again.
“Not far off all of them,” said Ireland boss Andy Farrell when asked which players we could expect to see back in the mix.
“Tadhg’s going really well and we would expect him to train Wednesday and Thursday when we’re in camp. Jamison’s fit, Robbie’s fit so we’ve got a good crop of players coming back when it matters.”
Farrell has been pleased with how his squad have adapted to the injury problems, with several players impressing as they have been given opportunities to start games. It means that Farrell will have some tricky selection calls to make for the Scotland game.
“We’ll see how they compete and train and take note and hold our nerve to see how their training goes and make the call,” he said.
Farrell indicated that he’s not too worried about some returning players having very little game time in recent months. Furlong, for example, has only made two Leinster appearances this season and has only played once off the bench since Ireland’s three November Tests.
“Well obviously it matters because ideally you would love [for them to have played more], but how many times have we done this now? We’ve done it time and time again in regards to it not being ideal, I suppose game time, etc.
“But we pride ourselves on making sure that our training gets people up to speed and we’ll see how they’ll come back into that and deal with all that. That will give us more of an idea.”
- This article was updated at 8.30am to correct ‘Johnny Ringrose’ to ‘Johnny Sexton’ in the third paragraph.
