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Ireland are hoping center Garry Ringrose will be available for Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations match against Italy in Dublin.
Leinster co-captain Ringrose is “progressing well” in his recovery from a shoulder injury. This caused him to miss Round 1 against France, which his country won 38-17.
The 29-year-old also missed training on Wednesday, but Ireland’s coaching staff are hopeful he will be fully fit for the Azzurri’s visit to the Aviva Stadium.
“We’re pretty confident that we’ll all be fit for full training tomorrow,” assistant coach Mike Catt told reporters, according to RTE.
“We’ve got some players that obviously have some bruises and bruises from Friday night. There’s a couple that are still rolling around.
“Calvin (Nash), Hugo (Keenan) and Ringer are making good progress. They obviously didn’t train today, but they’re making good progress.
“Let’s see how they recover over the next few days.”
With Ringrose absent, Robbie Henshaw partnered Bundy Aki in midfield for Friday night’s impressive bonus point win at Marseille.
A successful pre-tournament statement for the favorites fueled talk of Andy Farrell’s Ireland becoming the first team in the Six Nations era to win back-to-back Grand Slams.
Attack coach Katt urged his players to ignore “external noise” and focus on the task at hand.
“There’s no need to (get ahead of yourself),” he said.
“Andy has always talked about the next performance, that’s what matters.
“From a player’s perspective, once we reach the level where we can perform, the Grand Slams will take care of themselves.
“This allows you to focus on that and not worry about outside noise.”
Head coach Farrell is considering changes for the match against Gonzalo Quesada’s team.
Italy have only beaten Ireland once in the Six Nations, 22-15 against Roma in 2013, but they defeated England 27-24 on the opening weekend.
“What I liked about Italy’s performance (against England) was that they didn’t have a great World Cup,” said Catt, who was part of the Azzurri’s coaching staff from 2016 to 2019.
“I think they worked hard on it as a group of players.
“And for them to turn it around and perform like that against a strong English team was very impressive.
“They’re obviously trying to impress the new manager and the way they’ve played I thought they haven’t strayed from their DNA in terms of how they’ve played the last few years. ”
“With the arrival of Quesada, I think they tighten things up a little bit, but once they got going they scored some really good tries and caused some serious problems.”