Ireland will be without captain Caelan Doris, as well as Rónan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong for Saturday's Guinness Six Nations meeting with Wales in Cardiff.
Doris has officially been ruled out following a knee injury, while Kelleher is sidelined with a neck injury. Furlong is yet to feature in the championship as he deals with a persistent calf issue.
It is hoped that all three will be available for the crucial visit of France to Dublin on 8 March.
"We're hoping they’ll be available for France. They’re just going through their processes that they do with the physios, but they’re all making good progress," said attack coach Andrew Goodman.
Doris has played 42 consecutive internationals since the summer of 2021, starting all but one of those, with Jack Conan likely to start at number 8 for Ireland on Saturday.
Peter O’Mahony is expected to stay in the starting team and is the obvious choice to captain Simon Easterby’s side, although attack coach Goodman (below) insists they have several leaders on hand.
"There are some good leaders in the squad. We are going through that process.
"Obviously the leadership group has been growing well over the last couple of years and there’s a number of guys who have captained their provinces. So we have got some good options to choose from.
"Guys like Pete O’Mahony and Jack Conan that have captained their provinces. Dan Sheehan has, Ringer [Garry Ringrose], JR [James Ryan], Cian Prendergast – there are a number of guys with leadership experience, so a few possibilities there," he added.
With Doris and Kelleher out, it means Ireland will be making at least two changes to their starting side for the trip to Wales, with Dan Sheehan set to slot in at hooker.
Joe McCarthy and Mack Hansen’s return to fitness gives the Irish management team further chance to refresh selection, while Jack Crowley and Garry Ringrose will also be pushing for starting places.
And while there could be some chopping and changing to the squad this week, Goodman believes there is no risk of complacency against Wales, who are paying their first game under interim head coach Matt Sherratt, following Warren Gatland’s departure a week ago.
"To be honest, no chance [of complacency] in this group. The way the preparation has been from the playing group is as good as any other week, and when you look at the history of Ireland-Wales over the last 10 years over there, it hasn't been a nice place for us to go on a number of occasions.
"So we know they're back at home and there will be a bit of a natural bounce with a new coach coming in and so I don't think there's any chance of any complacency from this group going over there.
"We have a competitive squad and we're happy that we've got 35, 36 bodies in here at the moment who we'd be happy to chuck out in any game, so the boys are competing hard in training and there's going to be some opportunities in training for boys to put their hand up who haven't featured so far, so it's always a good energy around the group when there's someone coming in to play a game," he added.
While Ireland are preparing to face Wales, an Ireland 'A’ squad of 29 players has also assembled at the IRFU high performance facility this week ahead of their clash with England ‘A’ in Bristol on Sunday.
Goodman says it's likely some of that senior squad will be made available to ‘A’ coach Mike Prendergast later this week, once Easterby names his team to face Wales on Thursday morning.
"There is a chance that some of them could be released for the ‘A’s. There are a lot of bodies floating around the unit at the moment, which is great to see.
"A lot of those boys who have come in for Ireland ‘A’ have been standout for their provinces so it’s great to have those guys in with an opportunity in the green jersey."
Follow a live blog on Wales v Ireland in the Six Nations on Saturday from 2.15pm on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to live commentary with Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
