The main positive news coming out of Joe Schmidt's press conference on Thursday afternoon was that Johnny Sexton and Peter O'Mahony are expected to be fit to face France on February 25th.
A calf injury ruled Sexton out of Ireland opening game against Scotland with Paddy Jackson deputising.
For this weekend's game against Italy, Schmidt has made two changes to his starting XV from the one which took to the pitch at Murrayfield.
The first sees Cian Healy replace Jack McGrath at loosehead prop. Schmidt said that was a change which had been planned.
It was probably something we planned to do anyway, just to rotate those two. One plays 50, one plays 30 and vice-versa, really. They both get 80 minutes over the first two weekends.
They bring similar things but slightly different things. I think they've both earned an opportunity to get a shot at starting.
One of Ireland's main problems against Scotland was in the lineout. This issue has been alleviated by the reintroduction of Donnacha Ryan into the starting team. He missed out last weekend due to a medial ligament injury,
Donnacha is a pretty good lineout operator. He's a real technician in that area - I suppose a tactician and technician. He will add value at lineout time and he's got a great work rate. Those two things, I think we're going to need this weekend.
Though Ryan was expected to play anyway, a slight hamstring strain to Iain Henderson made the Munster second row certain to start. Henderson, who should be fit enough to face France, does not feature on the bench as a result of his injury. Ultan Dillane is again the second row option among the replacements.
The other change to the matchday squad sees Craig Gilroy replace Tommy Bowe on the bench. Schmidt said he and his backroom team had been keen to give Gilroy a chance to impress due to how hard he's been working in training.
We were always going to try to offer opportunity there [the bench].
Tommy was unlucky coming on [against Scotland]. He had to deal with an overlap where we should have done better to shut down further in. He therefore overreached in the tackle and that was frustrating for him. He ran a great line at one stage and Josh [van der Flier] just took his space. He just didn't quite get into the game. Tommy will hopefully get some time for Ulster this weekend and that will prepare him for the challenges that lie ahead.
Craig Gilroy toured South Africa with us and has been working incredibly hard. As a result of that, we're keen to give him an opportunity.
If he was fully fit, Andrew Trimble would have been a near certainty to start the game this weekend. The 32-year-old was very close to being available but Schmidt did not want to take the risk of the winger suffering a setback.
He's so close but if you try to push someone back early, as has been seen with other players during the season, you take risks of causing further problems. For us, it's frustrating but Simon [Zebo] and Keith [Earls] get another opportunity to impress. They're both very keen to avail of that.
