Tadhg Furlong trained with the Ireland squad this afternoon, with the tighthead prop looking to prove his fitness ahead of Thursday's Guinness Six Nations opener against France in Paris.
The Leinster prop was togged out and took part in this afternoon’s squad session at their Quinta do Lago training base in Portugal, having sat out earlier sessions in the week due to a calf injury, which he has been dealing with in recent weeks.
"He got through some good work actually, he's progressed really," assistant coach Simon Easterby said.
"We've been happy with the majority of the lads who have been training and some of them have come in with little niggles, but everyone's progressing really well and we had everyone available to train today."
The Ireland defence coach stopped short, however, of declaring Furlong ready to go for Thursday’s game at Stade de France, clarifying that the 33-year-old still has some work to do in order to prove his fitness.
"I think today was important and obviously tomorrow will be another important training day, but so far so good."
Management have confirmed that Ciarán Frawley and Billy Bohan, as well as development player Bryn Ward, will leave the squad to return to Dublin to train with the Ireland XV side, who take on an English selection at Thomond Park on Friday.
Connacht lock Darragh Murray will stay with the group, however, which will have one final training session in Portugal before flying to Paris on Monday afternoon.
It’s believed Munster captain Tadhg Beirne briefly left the camp to return to Ireland for a personal matter late last week, but the versatile forward was back with the squad today ahead of their big training session of match-week, with Easterby (below) confirming he is "good to go".
Head coach Andy Farrell will name his team to face France on Tuesday morning at 8am Irish time, with several big decisions to be made because of his hefty injury list, which leaves vacancies at loosehead prop and full-back in particular.
Munster’s Michael Milne appears to be the front runner to start at loosehead prop, with Jeremy Loughman and Billy Bohan also available as the specialists in that position, but Ireland have previously toyed with the option of bringing Tom O’Toole across the scrum, and the Ulster tighthead is an outside contender to play there on Thursday.
At full-back, Jamie Osborne and Jacob Stockdale are the two most obvious candidates given their previous experience, while out-half Jack Crowley has also been touted as a wildcard option.
"We've got some young guys in, haven't got as much experience or as many caps, but the training has been excellent.
"The young lads, as I said a little bit earlier, have really stepped up, they've connected up. I guess one of the real strengths of this group, and it always has been for the last four or five years, has been guys coming in, we'll get support from the more experienced players and it's up to the young guys to step up as well and they've done that too.
"But the more experienced players have been excellent in the way that they've brought players into the system and that makes it really encouraging, but also makes the training really competitive and it has been.
"Today was a great session. It was, without it being full contact, it was very good, had a good pace to it, a good bit of physicality and yeah, a lot of those youngsters have stepped up in the last week."
