Door open for return of 'ahead of schedule' Cian Healy 

POSSIBLE RETURN: Injured Cian Healy of Ireland watches on during the Rugby World Cup warm-up match between Ireland and Samoa. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Ireland have opened the door for Cian Healy to join their World Cup squad after the veteran prop declared he was recovering from a calf injury “ahead of schedule”.

The 35-year-old Test centurion would need a current member of Andy Farrell’s 33-man playing group to go down with a tournament-ending injury for him to get the call to play in his fourth World Cup having been initially ruled out on the eve of the head coach’s squad announcement in Ireland’s final warm-up game against Samoa on August 26.

Healy posted a video on social media this week showing him working out in the gym and on the field doing shuttle runs.

“It wasn’t easy getting here, but happy the body still knows how to recover ahead of schedule,” Healy wrote in a message accompanying his video. 

“Looking forward to getting back to it and will be forever grateful to those who got me to this point.” 

Ireland team manager Mick Kearney on Saturday acknowledged the progress made by the loosehead prop, whose place in the squad alongside Andrew Porter and Dave Kilcoyne went to Munster’s Jeremy Loughman.

“The medics and S&C would be in regular contact with Cian and I’m sure other players back home as well to see how they’re fitness levels are so I think it’s great to see Cian back training and training well,” Kearney said. “Possibly later in the tournament if we get an injury Cian would be a great addition if he was fully fit.

“So I would say it’s good to see him back training but it will require an injury to another player for Cian to be available to come in.” 

Kearney explained that other players who missed the final cut for squad selection last month were being monitored from Ireland training base in France with the management grateful the four Irish provinces had brought forward their pre-season matches to get players match fit should they be required by the national team as medical call-ups.

“There was a lot of conversations with the provinces during pre-season as to how we would keep the players fit that are not in the World Cup squad and you saw that there’s a mini interprovincial series going on at the moment. Leinster played Ulster the other night and Munster played Leinster as well.

“So the likes of whether it be Jamie Osborne or Gavin Coombes, Kieran Treadwell, there’s guys that are getting regular game time which is brilliant because initially I think the provinces might have said ‘we may not start playing pre-season games until a little bit later’.

“So it’s really good from our point of view that these guys are getting game time and will actually be match fit if they’re called in which is always a possibility.” 

Not at the moment, though. The Ireland manager confirmed a fully-fit squad after last weekend’s impressive victory over defending champions South Africa and a week out from the Grand Slam winners’ final Pool B match against Scotland at Stade de France next Saturday night.

With no match this weekend, Ireland have been preparing for the Scotland game since returning to camp on Wednesday having been given three days off after the Paris success over the Springboks.

Following Saturday’s training session at their Stade de La Chambrerie complex in Tours, Kearney said: “Everybody's great. We got back to Tours on Wednesday after a couple of great days off. Some of the lads stayed in Paris, some came straight back here with their families.

“We got back here late Wednesday evening, had a walk through on Thursday so we effectively mirrored Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday on Thursday, Friday and today so a nice walk through, organisational day on Thursday and then full days yesterday and today.

“All 33 trained, which is great and all in good form, so a great position to be in after four weeks in France and a long pre-season as well. To have 33 fit players is just fantastic from our point of view.” 

Kearney also addressed an upcoming milestone for a senior player with Peter O’Mahony in line for his 100th Ireland cap if selected to face the Scots.

“Peter got his first cap against England back in 2013, he was a young man - 22 years of age - and I've obviously seen a lot of him, I've worked him with a long time.

"He was always a leader. He captained the Under-20s team before that. His leadership qualities developed incredibly well, he was captain of the first Test team for the 2017 Lions and that shows the esteem he's held in internationally, not just in our team.

"He's quietly spoken, Peter, but he's a great knack of saying the right thing. He leads by his actions, he's brought an incredible dynamic to the team environment and has been a really important leader over a very long period of time.

"If he does get his 100th cap next Saturday it will be incredibly well deserved."