Ireland still awaiting verdict on the severity of Dan Sheehan’s foot injury

INJURY DOUBT: Dan Sheehan leaves the pitch in the first half of Ireland's win over England. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Ireland’s coaches are still waiting for a conclusive verdict on the severity of Dan Sheehan’s foot injury with the hooker continuing his treatment in Dublin as the rest of the squad prepares for Saturday’s final World Cup warm-up against Samoa.

Sheehan, Ireland’s first-choice hooker, pulled up towards the end of the first half of last Saturday’s Aviva Stadium victory over England and did not travel to southern France for this week’s warm-weather training camp and preparation for this weekend’s Test against the Samoans.

Attack coach Mike Catt on Tuesday neither confirmed nor denied speculation that Sheehan could miss the entire pool campaign at next month’s World Cup in France, with Ireland kicking off their Pool B schedule in Bordeaux against Romania on September 9.

Uncapped Munster hooker Diarmuid Barron has been called into camp alongside fellow hookers Ronan Kelleher, Rob Herring and Tom Stewart with head coach Andy Farrell set to name his 33-man tournament squad next Monday.

"We still haven't got confirmation on what it is,” Catt said of Sheehan’s injury after squad training at Bayonne’s Stade Jean Dauger.

Dan Sheehan of Ireland goes down with an injury during the Bank of Ireland Nations Series match between Ireland and England at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

“He's still seeing a specialist, obviously he's being rehabbed back in Dublin so hopefully Andy (Farrell) will have a bit more of an answer tomorrow.

"As it currently stands he's seeing a specialist and getting the proper treatment accordingly, really… we'll have a much better idea tomorrow or on Thursday in terms of where he's at and when his back to return dates are.”

Catt accepted that losing Sheehan for even a portion of the World Cup campaign would be a serious loss but said their was total trust in the abilities of the other hookers to hold the fort in his absence.

"I think what you get from Dan is one of the best hookers in the world currently so he's going to be missed in whatever team he plays in, but again we've got full faith in Rob Herring, Ronan Kelleher and Tom Stewart obviously, who is showing his face at the moment.

"So it gives these guys an opportunity to have a pop this weekend and again, depending on the diagnosis, we'll see how we go on the back end of it. Again, Dan is a world class rugby player, he has been instrumental in terms of how we play our game. So he'd be a big loss to anybody.”

Turning his focus to Saturday’s Samoa Test, Catt said the coaching staff were looking for steady improvement from last weekend’s 29-10 win over England.

"I think we need to be a lot more clinical. We need to play our way, we know exactly what's coming with Samoa, they are a big, physical side, we need to make sure we play our game and play at a tempo that we've trained for the past eight, nine weeks to play at.

"So it's making sure the guys are in the right frame of mind, it's their final opportunity really to put a gauntlet down for selection and we want to go into the World Cup on a massive high.

"So we really want to be able to take our game...we haven't performed particularly well against Italy or England, we definitely felt a bit rusty or 'clunky', as they put it, so it's an opportunity for us now to fix the fixables.”