Things finally looking up for Kearney after training return
The Leinster full-back strained medial ligaments in his right knee during the first half of the defeat to France in Paris three weeks ago and was initially all but written off for the remainder of the tournament.
However, the Louth native trained with the rest of the Irish squad at Kildare’s Carton House yesterday and “made good progress”, according to Ireland head coach Declan Kidney.
“He went about his business well but he didn’t do any of the contact so we just have to see if there is any reaction, if it stiffens up after this morning’s run or not,” said Kidney. “At the moment, he has every chance of putting himself forward.”
The news concerning Brian O’Driscoll, who was inadvertently kneed in the head by Paul O’Connell towards the end of the win over England in Twickenham two weekends’ ago, is equally reassuring.
“Yeah, he’s good. He trained this morning. Obviously, any time a fella takes a bang you keep him out of contact for a while, especially when you don’t have another match coming up, but he has trained fully and was driving them on the same way as he always does.
“He has been symptom-free from the start. All the tests he has done have shown him clear and he will see specialists before he resumes any contact work.”
As was expected, a handful of players sat out yesterday’s session because of a variety of knocks and illnesses while others were allowed sit out the contact drills if they so chose.
Among them were Jamie Heaslip who is still nursing an ankle injury he picked up in London as well as David Wallace, still feeling the after-effects of that same encounter.
Neither is considered a worry ahead of the Welsh test. The same was said for Tomás O’Leary who is currently hampered by a sore ankle while an eye is also being kept on Gordon D’Arcy.
Completing the list of those on light duties was Tommy Bowe and Keith Earls, who reported stomach bugs and Kidney will now hope that there are no additions to that list after the weekend’s Magners League fixtures.
The three provinces are all in action in Wales over the weekend with Andrew Trimble, Paddy Wallace, Ronan O’Gara, Tony Buckley, Shane Jennings and Eoin Reddan among those due to see some game time.
One man definitely unavailable for selection in the coming weeks is Jerry Flannery whose appeal against the six-week ban imposed for his kick at French wing Alexis Palisson has been rejected.
“You are always disappointed when you are missing players,” said Kidney, “but … there is a process in place to judge these things and everyone is looking at it the whole time so I just felt that it was good to go after it.”
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