Dan Sheehan, Jack Conan and Dave Kilcoyne will all sit out Ireland's Rugby World Cup opener against Romania on Saturday, but Irish management are confident the trio could be available for the second Pool B game against Tonga next week.
Sheehan and Conan have both brought foot injuries into the tournament; Sheehan picked up his issue against England, while Conan suffered his knock against Italy just over four weeks ago.
Likewise, Kilcoyne hasn't featured since the first warm-up against Italy, having strained a hamstring at the warm-weather training camp in Portugal.
"Everyone's going well, there are a few guys still finishing their rehab and they won’t be involved at the weekend" forwards coach Paul O'Connell said, speaking from Ireland's team base in Tours.
"David Kilcoyne as well is struggling a little bit, but should be OK next week.
"By and large, we're close to a full bill of health."
Head coach Andy Farrell will confirm his team on Thursday, Saturday's opener in Bordeaux, with Johnny Sexton set to play having missed the warm-up schedule due to suspension, while Rónan Kelleher will also feature having overcome a hamstring problem.
O'Connell [below] said the selection policy this week will largely be dictated by who they believe needs to play.
"Game time, and some players needed game time from the end of last year as well. Some guys that maybe picked up knocks during pre-season and didn't get as much running as other guys [will play].
"We trained two days a week [in pre-season], and they were generally pretty high-intensity, there was a decent level of contact in them.
"If you were involved in a lot of those training sessions, you got a lot of rugby specific fitness into your legs. If you missed a few of those you were behind a little bit. It's just about getting guys gametime."
For O'Connell it's a first World Cup as a coach, having played in four tournaments between 2003 and 2015.
Three of those four World Cups ended in quarter-final defeat, with the only exception being the 2007 tournament where Ireland failed to get out of their pool.
And O'Connell says he's learned some valuable lessons along the way which have gone towards preparing the team in 2023.
"One of my experiences would have been in 2007, being overtrained a little bit, overtrained and we got the hotel wrong, got the food wrong, and fuelling is such a bit part of preparation.
"That's a big part of it, your temptation as a player is to train as hard as you can but you need to leave something in the tank a bit. Your temptation as a coach is the same. It's a big strength of Andy and Jason Cowman [strength and conditioning coach], managing that and having a good feel of where the players are at, and their training load.
"I think we want to evolve and get better for sure, but it's not about reinventing anything. Those are my two lessons. It's been a brilliant pre-season.
"We weren't successful in my time at World Cups, but I enjoyed them all, 07 was tough because there was a real visible dip in performance during the competition. Every other tournament was really enjoyable, I loved them, loved the training, the build-up, being with the lads.
"I think we have real continuity here with the lads in terms how we play, in terms of selection, in terms of them knowing each other, and knowing what each other are about, and knowing how to enjoy themselves."
Ireland come into the game off the back of a 13-game winning run which has seen them climb to the top of the world rankings, but O'Connell's area of expertise - the lineout - has been one area of inconsistency during the summer.
The warm-up wins against Italy and England saw Ireland concede three frustrating penalties for obstruction at the maul, while their lineout in the final warm-up game versus Samoa fell apart in the first half, losing five of their 12 throws.
O'Connell admits to his disappointment at how the setpiece functioned over the summer, but believes it can be ironed out with a few minor fixes.
"It's always frustrating. It was probably a combination of things.
"I would have had that experience as a player, you lose a few lineouts from a few different things and it looks like there's something wrong.
"In that Samoa game in the first half it was a beautiful throw from Tom Stewart at the start and we drop it cold. We got one call wrong, and we got a call wrong in the England game which should never happen to us. A little bit of that is due to the preparation and build-up and people being in and out.
"It's more frustrating for the player themselves, because they want to look after the hookers every time they play. A few of those were frustrating, but we haven't made any major changes, we just need to make some better decisions when we're in there," he added.
Sexton is set to play his first game since injuring his groin in the Grand Slam-clinching victory over England in March and Ireland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park says his provincial team-mate is raring to go.
"He's buzzing, as you can imagine. He has been great to be fair, seamlessly back into training like he always does.
"It will be good to see him back out there if he gets a run."
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