Ireland's coach, Simon Easterby, has clarified that Jack Conan's participation in the upcoming World Cup in France is not ruled out. Conan, the Leinster back-rower, sustained a foot injury during the 33-17 victory against Italy on Saturday. As a result, he has remained in Dublin while the rest of the Ireland squad undergoes training in the Algarve this week.
This month, Conan expressed his determination to make up for the time he lost while not being able to represent Ireland in both the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. Understandably, concerns arose that he might miss out again.
However, Easterby has alleviated these concerns by confirming that this is not the case. "Genuinely not," he reassured. He explained that although Conan has faced foot-related issues in the past, the current injury is not as severe as the one he experienced in 2019. Easterby noted Conan's optimistic attitude toward the injury. He stated, "He was pretty bullish around the injury. From everything that we’re hearing - and we haven’t had full feedback yet - but everything we’re hearing it is a positive injury as opposed to a really negative one."
Jack Conan not with the Ireland squad in Portugal. Stayed in Dublin to rehab his injury, with a further update expected next week.
— Ciarán Kennedy (@CiaranKennedy_) August 8, 2023
Conan has opted to stay back in Dublin for rehabilitation, and more information about his injury is expected to be available next week. Easterby mentioned, "We’ll find out next week (his availability against England). We’re still waiting on an assessment and we decided it was probably best for him to stay back in Dublin and rehab and then we’ll get a better indication on how he is when we arrive back into camp next week.”
Easterby also revealed that Ireland's captain, Johnny Sexton, will participate in certain match-day scenarios during training to ensure he is prepared for Ireland's opening game on September 9. Easterby stated, "Yeah, he’ll be playing a part in the training session for sure, as will every other player that’s here actually." He explained that all players who have traveled are available for training.
Easterby went on to discuss a collaborative training session involving the Portuguese coaches, designed to provide a unique practice experience. He said, "Often teams collaborate with other teams and get the opportunity to do some set-piece against each other and run backline against backline. It certainly isn’t a full-blown game, it’s a conditioned training session which has been a collaboration between the Portuguese coaches and ourselves around trying to create a training session which is slightly different from the norm."
Ireland's upcoming match is scheduled against England on August 19.
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