By Daniel Pitcher
Conor Murray and Jamie Heaslip remain in contention for Ireland ahead of their RBS Six Nations opener in Rome this Saturday.
Murray has been battling against a neck injury that kept him out of Munster’s European Champions Cup dead rubber tie with Sale at Thomond Park.
While Heaslip has had trouble overcoming a blow to his right shoulder, which he first suffered - at the beginning of the month - while playing for Leinster against Ulster in the Guinness Pro 12.
Murray was training on Friday and is expected to return to contact training this week, while Heaslip will train fully tomorrow.
“Conor Murray trained well on Friday and he progressed to full contact training,” said Ireland team manager Mick Kearney.
“He has seen a specialist, we had an open training session in the Aviva (Stadium) on Friday and Conor took a full part in that.
“There was some minor contact in that session but he came through it really well, and we would expect that Conor would be available for selection.”
Meanwhile, Eoin Reddan is making good progress from a knee ligament injury and the IRFU remain hopeful that he will also train tomorrow.
Dave Kearney returned to training today and Mike McCarthy is still following back to play protocols from a concussion he suffered playing for the Wolfhounds on Friday.
Tests on him have been positive and team manager Mick Kearney admitted that it’s too early to rule him in or out of the squad.
Luke Fitzgerald is back in contention as well after he suffered a bout of the vomiting bug last Thursday evening. That illness forced him to withdraw from the Wolfhounds game.
Finally, Cian Healy continues to make good progress in training, any chance of him starting against Italy or at least having a place on the bench is rated as extremely doubtful.