Ireland Wait On Healy

Simon Easterby admits it is not ideal that Cian Healy could arrive at the World Cup without full match fitness as the Ireland prop battles neck trouble.

Forwards coach Easterby believes Healy, who has been caped 51 times by Ireland, will have completed his protracted recovery from neck surgery in May in time for Ireland's World Cup assault next month.

Easterby remains hopeful the British and Irish Lions front-rower could yet feature in the latter phases of Ireland's four World Cup warm-up contests.

Ireland’s first warm-up match as part of their pre-World Cup schedule is against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, however Easterby conceeded Healy's situation is being monitored "week to week".

“It's not ideal for any player not to get game time during this period, but we have to take a view of each individual and make sure we do the right thing by them," said Easterby.

"Cian is progressing nicely and working week to week with the medical team.”

"We're giving him the best opportunity to get right over the next couple of weeks so we can hopefully include him towards the end of August.

"He is doing his rehabilitation programme and it's going according to plan.

"It is a week to week thing and we don't want to put too much pressure on his return.”

‘I think he's progressing nicely at the moment, but we're not going to put any timescale on it."

After Saturday's clash in Cardiff, Ireland then face Scotland, before a return match against Wales in Dublin and finally a trip to South-West London and Twickenham to face England to complete their World Cup warm-up run.

Joe Schmidt's men begin their World Cup assault by taking on Canada at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday, September 19.

Ireland will then face Romania, Italy and France in their bid to top Pool D and secure the best-possible seeding for a quarterfinal tie.

Head coach Schmidt must finalise his 31-man squad on August 31, with this month's warm-up fixtures a prime opportunity to get an additional look at a number of players on the squad’s periphery who hope to make the final squad.

Ireland will give Healy as long as possible to prove his readiness for the World Cup, given his potency in both tight and loose exchanges.

"The medical team are on top of things and they're pretty comfortable about how it's going," said former Ireland flanker Easterby.

"It's a case of him going through the rehabilitation and that will hopefully continue to improve as we go week to week.

"They're Test matches and it's important that we have guys who are fully fit.

"That will be the case with all the players who might be coming back from surgery. We'll make sure that we re-introduce them to game time as and when."