JORDI MURPHY WILL remain with Ireland at the World Cup in Japan.
There had been fears that a rib injury would force Murphy to return home to Ireland but he will be staying with Joe Schmidt’s 31-man squad after a scan over the weekend delivered positive results.
Murphy only linked up with Ireland in Japan last week when he replaced the injured Jack Conan. He popped a rib early in his first outing against Russia on Thursday and was substituted off after just 26 minutes of that tie.
However, Ireland delivered a positive update on the Ulster back row today.
“He’s a lot better, a lot better than we thought he would be anyway,” said Ireland assistant coach Andy Farrell in Fukuoka today.
“He’s shaped up really well. He’s very comfortable walking around and we expect Jordi to be back training on Thursday.”
Murphy did his own rehab away from the rest of the Ireland squad at their training session today, underlining that he is uncertain to be fit in time for Saturday’s clash against Samoa in Fukuoka.
“We’ve been told that he’s going to be available to train on Thursday,” insisted Farrell. “We select our teams in and around that so we’ll stick with that.
“We’re happy with how Jordi has pulled up, he was pretty sore after the game. After all the medical advice he’s been given, he’s in great spirits.”
Meanwhile, Robbie Henshaw is back in full training after overcoming the hamstring injury he suffered before the World Cup got underway, while Chris Farrell is due to return to full contact training tomorrow after coming through his concussion protocols.
Joey Carbery, who was withdrawn from the bench to face Russia, is also set to feature against the Samoans, according to Farrell.
“Joey is flying, he’s in a great place. He’s in the best place I’ve certainly seen him over the last few weeks.
“He was running around the training ground today with a proper spring in his step. He’s in great spirits and he’s ready to go.”
Ireland are chasing a bonus-point victory against Samoa in Fukuoka on Saturday – presuming the game is not affected by Typhoon Hagibis.
Schmidt’s players were given the weekend off in Fukuoka to recover and refresh from a busy opening few weeks at the World Cup, with Farrell stating that the results of that downtime are clear to see.
“There’s been a few days off, a bit of R&R and the boys have enjoyed that,” said Farrell. “It’s been a pressurised enough time for them since the selection of the last Wales game when we got on the plane.
“There’s been a lot of stuff going on as far as mental prep, the pressure of getting selected, getting on the plane, getting into the World Cup and the big hype of the first game with Scotland and we’d been planning that for quite some time.
“We win that and there’s a six-day turnaround and a five-day turnaround and a couple of performances that needed to be better so you could imagine that our rest has been much-needed.
“We’ve come back into work today in great spirits, had a look at a few things we could get better at and the boys have bounced into the gym, first of all, and there’s been a few personal bests in there, which says a lot after a couple of days, and the training session has been pretty sharp on the back of it.”