Ireland hopeful Jack Conan will be fit for South Africa game

HOPEFUL: Ireland are hopeful No 8 Jack Conan will be fit for their crucial clash with South Africa. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Ireland are hopeful Jack Conan could be fit to face South Africa in Paris in 10 days while Dan Sheehan, Robbie Henshaw, and Dave Kilcoyne have all returned to full training ahead of this Saturday’s World Cup Pool B clash with Tonga in Nantes.

Team manager Mick Kearney on Wednesday issued a positive squad update at Ireland’s Stade de la Chambrerie training complex with the Grand Slam winners now enjoying a clean bill of health.

Conan will not feature against the Tongans, however. The No 8 sustained a foot injury in the first summer warm-up Test against Italy on August 5 and has not featured since as Ireland completed their pre-season against England and Samoa, then opened their Pool B account last Saturday with an 82-8 hammering of Romania in Bordeaux.

“Jack was out running, which was a real positive, and while Saturday will come a little bit early for him, I think the signs are really positive in terms of being able to train fully next week,” Kearney said following Wednesday’s training session. “Hopefully he will be available for South Africa.” 

Kearney revealed that while Conan had returned to training on arrival in Tours on September 1, the back-rower had missed sessions more recently and Wednesday’s was his “first for the last few days”.

“So, he has been doing most of his rehab in the gym with the physios. Today was obviously a very big day for him in terms of getting out and running. He ran really well, it’s really positive and he was in a good place afterwards.” 

Like Conan, loosehead prop Kilcoyne’s last action was against the Italians five weeks ago, when he sustained a hamstring injury while first-choice hooker Sheehan has not played since the Dublin win over England on August when he picked up a foot injury.

Henshaw was selected on the bench for the Romania match, the centre having felt a twinge in his hamstring during Ireland’s eve of match training run at Stade de Bordeaux.

Of the trio, Kearney added: “They were all integrated fully into training today, and all trained fully, so that’s positive as well.”