Joe Schmidt says Chris Farrell is leading the race to replace Robbie Henshaw in the Ireland midfield, ten days out from the Aviva Stadium showdown with Wales.
Henshaw will play no further part in this year's Six Nations after sustaining a shoulder injury in the win against Italy and going under the knife.
The loss of the Leinster centre is a blow, but Schmidt has a hungry cluster of players desperate to replace him and line up alongside Bundee Aki in Dublin, including Garry Ringrose and Rory Scannell.
However, it's Munster centre Farrell, so impressive in the Autumn Internationals against Fiji and Argentina, who looks most likely to get the nod.
"Chris teamed up (Aki) against Argentina and did a really good job," Schmidt told RTÉ Sport's Michael Corcoran.
"We've got a lot of respect for Chris and what he brings to the party. We had Sam Arnold with us last week and his explosive ability to accelerate and play the game has been impressive. We'll be looking at those options.
"There's also the option of pushing Bundee out and having a second playmaker in Rory Scannell, who has trained really well with us.
"Probably Chris Farrell has his nose in front at the moment. He trained well today, he did well against Argentina and he's a guy we've got a fair bit of confidence in."
Schmidt was upbeat on the health of Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson, who both came off during the Italian game.
A scan on Furlong’s hamstring has revealed only a minor setback, while Schmidt said Henderson's withdrawal was precautionary. The head coach also said he''s "absolutely confident" lock James Ryan will shake off a niggle.
"Tadgh and Hendy got through really good sessions today," he said. "James did a really good session yesterday. We're looking pretty good apart from Robbie and, obviously, Josh van der Flier.
"I'd be absolutely confident with James Ryan, pretty confident with Iain Henderson, probably slightly more than Tadgh. It's just the way that Tadgh pulled up, whereas Iain probably could have kept on playing.
"He just felt a bit of tightness in the hamstring. That was precautionary. Tadgh ran at 75%, full change of direction today. That is really promising. I'd be confident there without trying to push guys through too quickly."
Ireland concluded a three-day mini camp in Athlone today with a training session against the Ireland U-20 team.
Schmidt was happy with his team's condition as he looks to finetune a title charge.
"It didn't look like a down week out there. The players rolled their sleeves up, got some pretty good work done today and that's in the bank for us to springboard off for a tough week's work next week.
"That's the challenge of the Six Nations. Everyone comes in a little bit underdone in the first game, things are a little bit scratchy, and you build through the tournament to be as good as you can be in the last game. Anyone can derail anyone."
