Van Der Flier Ruled Out For Rest Of Season
Josh van der Flier has been ruled out for the rest of the season having picked up a knee injury in the opening match of the NatWest 6 Nations on Saturday.
Flanker Josh van der Flier sustained a serious knee ligament injury during the first round match at Stade de France and was replaced by Dan Leavy.
In other squad news, Dave Kilcoyne has rejoined the Ireland squad at Carton House, while Jack O’Donoghue and Barry Daly will train with the group during the early part of this week.
Andrew Conway will continue his rehab at Munster this week, and prop James Cronin has returned to Limerick in order to garner some game minutes with Munster in the GUINNESS PRO14 next weekend.
Looking ahead to the team selection for the second round clash with Italy, Ireland kicking coach Richie Murphy said: “Every Six Nations game is one you have to win which makes it different from November. We have such a strong squad, we do feel comfortable in every player so we’ll have a look at it.
“Johnny Sexton wants to play every game, all the players who were in France want to play every game. It’s not a case of us wrapping players in cotton wool. Jordan Larmour is very close to it, he has learned very quickly. It’s not that we don’t think he’s ready but we’ll have a closer look at it.
“Joey Carbery hasn’t had a massive amount of time through injury and at Leinster he has mostly played full-back (rather than out-half). We can’t guarantee what time he will get this week, we can’t plan on that basis because you don’t know what is going to happen.
“Even the guys who started in November but made their first Six Nations debut at the weekend realised that there was a huge jump in intensity.”