Ireland to wait on fitness of injured trio ahead of Australia clash

Ireland will be desperately hoping for their injured trio CJ Stander, Rob Kearney and Simon Zebo prove their fitness ahead of their upcoming autumn international game against Australia in Dublin on Saturday.

Flanker Stander and full-back Kearney will be undergoing return to play protocols after showing signs of concussion during the game against New Zealand while Zebo, who was tackled hard by New Zealand centre Malakai Fekitoa is suffering from cramps.

Ireland have already ruled out Jonny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw for Saturday's clash due to a hamstring strain and concussion respectively which they sustained during the game against All Blacks.

"They are on track, they are following the return to play protocols and are covering off those (markers) as we would expect," said Ireland assistant Simon Easterby of Stander and Kearney.

"We will know later in the week as they go through those protocols.

"Simon (Zebo) has managed training today and got through some work.

"He, like some other players in the group, are being managed, to get them right for Thursday, when we can select the team based on who is available."

Joe Schmidt is expected to announce his team following Thursday's final training session which will give him a clear status on the trio.

Meanwhile, Keith Earls returned to training on Tuesday after missing the Dublin encounter against New Zealand while lock Ultan Dillane is also in contention for the Wallabies game after recovering from a minor knee injury.

"Keith has managed to train today, Ultan was carrying a bump from his performance against Canada so those guys are back on board," said Easterby.

"They will have been disappointed to miss out on the opportunity to play last weekend but it is obviously good to have some guys coming in who are a little bit fresher and ready to put their hands up for selection.

"First and foremost we want to try and get a performance (on Saturday) and keep building some consistency.

"Yes we want to build depth; that probably goes back to the World Cup time when we didn't quite have that depth in certain positions.

"But it is important to get the balance right. We have lost a few players already after the weekend, we want to keep some consistency (in selection) but we always want to build some depth going into the Six Nations and this weekend might allow us to do that.

"The players put themselves through a hell of a workload at the weekend.

"It's important we get them right in the first part of the week, so we can build up in to Thursday and Friday and get them in a really good physical and mental state for Saturday."