Ireland’s Sheehan and Healy likeliest of injured quintet to return against Italy

Dan Sheehan and Cian Healy look the likeliest of the injured quintet of Irish players to be fit in time for Ireland’s next Guinness Six Nations game against Italy in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico next Saturday (kick-off 2.15pm).

A fuller and familiar-looking squad of about 37 players, who convened at the Carton House hotel last night (Sunday) will be confirmed today along with an update on the injured players.

The Italian game may come too soon for Robbie Henshaw (wrist), Jamison Gibson-Park (hamstring) and Tadhg Furlong (calf), although all of them could come back into the equation for the round-four game away to Scotland a fortnight subsequently.

But Sheehan (hamstring) and Healy (hamstring) are thought to be recovering from their respective strains and could be options for next Saturday’s game.

The Counter Ruck: the rugby newsletter from The Irish Times

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URC fixtures

Although Johnny Sexton was thought to be on course to resume training with the rest of the squad at the IRFU’s HPC on Monday it remains to be seen whether the Irish captain will be risked in this round three-game, especially as there is only a six-day turnaround between the Scotland game in Murrayfield on Sunday, March 12th, and the final game at home to England on Saturday, March 18th.

All but two of the 14 players released back to their provinces played in the weekend’s round of URC fixtures, the highlight being Gavin Coombes’s hat-trick in Munster’s 55-3 rout of the Ospreys on Friday night at Thomond Park.

Caolin Blade and Jordan Larmour were also among the try scorers as Connacht won by 57-34 in Zebre and Leinster maintained their 100 per cent record this season with a 43-14 win over the Dragons.

The vast majority of those players are expected to train with the Irish squad for this week’s countdown to Rome.