Ireland will make a call on Johnny Sexton's fitness for the Six Nations game against Italy (Saturday, 2.25pm, live on RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ2) later in the week as the Leinster out-half makes progress in his recovery.
Sexton missed the hugely disappointing defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday with a calf injury, though he and Peter O'Mahony - who also missed the Edinburgh clash due to a hamstring injury - are reported to be back running.
“He’s frustrated but Jonathan has been around a long time,” team manager Paul Dean told RTÉ Sport.
“He’s very professional in his approach, and he wants to play, he really wants to play.
“We have to make sure that he’s ready and that he returns at the right time.
“The medics care going to make this decision.
“Personally I thought he was going to play last week but the medics had decided that he would be better sitting out."
Joe Schmidt has a clean bill of health apart from that with back Andrew Conway "perfect, ready to go" after recovering from a groin injury.
Tadhg Furlong suffered a bruised shoulder at the weekend but trained today and isn't expected to have any major issues.
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Schmidt was left deeply frustrated on Saturday evening as his side's Grand Slam hopes went up in smoke at the first hurdle. He'll now hope for a swift response against Conor O'Shea's Italy at Stadio Olimpico.
“We missed our timing," he said. "We haven’t played for a long time and there was a few changes from the last time we played.
“At the moment, the priority is to recover. We can’t change the result. We can’t change what we just delivered on the pitch.
"What we can do is work towards much better performance the next time.”
Live Six Nations coverage of Italy versus Ireland on RTÉ Two from 1.30pm on Saturday (KO 2.25pm) and live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1’s Saturday Sport programme from 2pm.
