Monday 20 February 2017 18:54, UK
Ireland are confident Johnny Sexton, Rob Kearney and Conor Murray will be fit to face France on Saturday, despite not training fully on Friday.
Sexton has yet to feature in the Six Nations due to a calf complaint, while Kearney picked up a bicep injury in the 63-10 victory over Italy in Rome.
Neither trained fully in Ireland's open training session at Monaghan on Friday, while influential scrum-half Murray also sat out the session due to a slight adductor issue.
Despite their absences, the Ireland coaching staff are confident all three will be fit for Saturday's clash with France in Dublin.
"Everybody looks good to fully train tomorrow," said Ireland team manager Paul Dean.
"Johnny Sexton will play a part in training today, but will fully train tomorrow. Hopefully when he comes through that, he'll be fine for the weekend.
"Rob Kearney continues to make progress. He'll do some contact work today and he'll fully train tomorrow.
"If you talk to Johnny and Rob they'll both say that they're 100 per cent fit and ready to go, so we just need the medics to pass them and they need to prove to us that they are.
"Conor Murray's workload was managed in Monaghan last week. It was a difficult week for the players last week, but I'm happy to report that the outlook is positive.
"Conor was tight, so we thought it prudent to call up Kieran Marmion. He trained with Connacht on Thursday, with us on Friday and he was rested at the weekend."
Ireland also confirmed on Monday Leinster openside flanker Josh van der Flier could miss the rest of the Six Nations after picking up a shoulder injury in the victory over Edinburgh, though Ulster winger Andrew Trimble and Munster flanker Peter O'Mahony are back in full training and available for selection.
