IRELAND HAVE REPORTED a clean bill of health in their squad ahead of Saturday’s opening World Cup warm-up game against Italy in Dublin [KO 8pm, RTÉ].
Andy Farrell’s men begin their pre-season schedule with the visit of the Italians, who lost 25-13 to Scotland last weekend.
The Ireland boss will be able to pick from a 41-man group, with the IRFU having reported that no players are dealing with injury concerns after spending last week training away from camp.
Ireland have two other warm-up games after this weekend, with England visiting Dublin on Saturday 19 August and Farrell’s men then travelling to Bayonne in France to take on Samoa on Saturday 26 August.
The Irish teams for these three summer Tests will definitely not include captain Johnny Sexton, who is serving a three-game ban for his behaviour towards the match officials after Leinster’s Champions Cup final defeat to La Rochelle back in May.
Sexton will return from his suspension in time for Ireland’s opening World Cup pool clash against Romania on Saturday 9 September in Bordeaux.
Ireland’s World Cup training squad:
Loosehead props: Cian Healy, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter
Tighthead props: Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Furlong, Tom O’Toole
Hookers: Rob Herring, Ronan Kelleher, Dan Sheehan, Tom Stewart
Second rows: Tadhg Beirne, Iain Henderson, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Kieran Treadwell, Ryan Baird
Back rows: Jack Conan, Gavin Coombes, Caelan Doris, Peter O’Mahony, Cian Prendergast, Josh van der Flier
Scrum-halves: Caolin Blade, Craig Casey, Jamison Gibson-Park, Conor Murray
Out-halves: Ross Byrne, Jack Crowley, Jonathan Sexton, Ciarán Frawley
Centres: Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, Jamie Osborne, Garry Ringrose
Back three: Keith Earls, Mack Hansen, Hugo Keenan, James Lowe, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien, Jacob Stockdale.
