There's no Six Nations action this weekend but that doesn't mean there's a let up in the bad news that we've become used to over the past couple of months. With quite a few prostrate bodies littering the Stade de France field last Saturday it was clear that Ireland would be heading to Twickenham at anything but full strength.
That fear has been realised today with confirmation from Joe Schmidt that all three of Sean O'Brien, Mike McCarthy and Dave Kearney will miss the rest of the tournament through injury.
O'Brien and Kearney are out with hamstring and shoulder injuries respectively after both players were forced off during the first half of the 10-9 defeat to the French. However, it is McCarthy who may yet be cause for most worry with confirmations that he will likely miss the rest of the season having suffered concussion against French.
Schmidt confirmed that McCarthy had 'seen a specialist now and he is going to effectively recondition himself, freshen himself up and kick-start next season'. Although the Irish coach put a bit of a positive spin on things calling it 'an opportunity to freshen himself up a bit', the loss of McCarthy to a head injury for such a long spell of time certainly won't be taken lightly.
Elsewhere at training in Mullingar today, Johnny Sexton sat out the session with a rolled ankle but he should be back in training at the start of next week and is not a major worry while Keith Earls returned to training yesterday after concussion had ruled him out of the game in Paris.
