Tipperary marksman Declan Browne has been ruled out of Friday's decisive International Rules test against Australia having failed to recover from a dead leg.
Browne, who also missed last week's loss to the Aussies in Perth, suffered the injury in a warm-up match against Western Australia when challenged off the ball.
The forward had been expected to be fit for the second test but further scans have revealed muscular bleeding, ruling the former All Star out.
John O'Keefe's side trail the hosts by 10 points in the two-match series and with poor finishing a feature of the first test, it had been hoped Browne's precision kicking could help bridge the gap.
One player who will feature in Melbourne is Westmeath's Dessie Dolan after last season's leading scorer was given the all-clear following the facial injury he sustained in the first test.
Dolan received a bloody nose, but fortunately nothing more serious, in a clash with Matthew Scarlett who has since been cited for his part in the incident.
"Des is fine," Ireland coach John O'Keefe told afl.com. "He was our top scorer last year at Croke Park and he didn't register one score last Friday night - which is very unusual for Des."
Meanwhile, O'Keefe held Ireland's first training session in the MCG today and welcomed the wet conditions that greeted his side's arrival.
"This is very heavy rain but this will suit us fine," O'Keefe said. "We've got no problems with playing in the rain, we are used to it. I think makes clean fielding of the ball more difficult with a slippy ball so it might to be our advantage.
"We would hope our skills would come to the fore in the wet with our ball handling but our kicking has to be more accurate than it was last Friday.
"In ideal conditions in Perth, we kicked very badly and that has to improve if we want to narrow the gap."