Keith Earls' premature departure from Ireland's win over France was well and truly lost in the worry over the likes of O'Mahony, Sexton and O'Connell. The Munster man picked up a knock and was replaced by Luke Fitzgerald after 61 minutes on Sunday.
He was later seen on the bench with ice on his right arm and it has been thought that Joe Schmidt's reluctance to call up a replacement for Jared Payne has been linked to Earls' readiness for this weekend. Earls has deputised well in the centre so it's conceivable that has played a part in Schmidt's waiting game.
And if it is the case then perhaps we may be about to see some movement on the replacement front after Earls was forced to sit out training in Cardiff today. It had been hoped that Earls' injury was not overly serious but to see him being forced to miss training just four days before the clash with Argentina is certainly not a positive development.
Having said that, scrum coach Greg Feek was there to ensure worries over Earls' participation don't get out of hand.
We're going to see how Keith goes, we're looking after him a bit and it's not too bad, we'll see how he goes on Friday as well. He's just a bit battered, that's all.
While Earls may yet prove to be a problem, there was a positive update on the status of Johnny Sexton. The out-half trained away from the main squad today but he did get through quite a bit of work and the Irish camp have updated his injury status to 'quietly confident' that he will be available.
