Paul O'Connell ruled out of Wales clash

Paul O'Connell has been ruled out of Ireland's Six Nations encounter with Wales on Sunday after he failed to recover sufficiently from a shoulder injury.

Despite having an encouraging period of rehabilitation last week, O'Connell's shoulder has reacted to the next level of training and has not progressed sufficiently, the IRFU said.

Ireland team doctor Gary O'Driscoll said: "Based on Paul's reaction in training today, we repeated the scan which revealed that the shoulder has not healed to the extent we had anticipated. Paul will continue with his rehabilitation and we are confident that he will be available for the Scotland game."

Meanwhile, Saracens hooker Shane Byrne has been added to the Ireland squad as precautionary cover for Jerry Flannery who suffered an ankle strain in training. A decision on Flannery's availability will be made later in the week.