Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray and James Ryan are all in line to return for Ireland’s Round 3 clash with Italy after being named in Andy Farrell’s 36-man squad ahead of the contest.
Sexton and Ryan missed the Round 2 defeat to France after being taken off for HIAs against Wales in Round 1, while Murray suffered a hamstring injury in the build-up to the game with Les Bleus.
But all three are now back in the wider squad that will meet at the IRFU High Performance Centre in Dublin on Monday morning, while the 12 players who featured in the Guinness PRO14 over the weekend all came through without injury.
Tom O’Toole, Ryan Baird and Craig Casey, who was an unused replacement against France, are the three uncapped players in Ireland’s 36-man squad.
Ireland are seeking a first win of the 2021 Guinness Six Nations after a pair of narrow defeats and lock Iain Henderson – who wore the captain’s armband against France in the absence of Sexton and Ryan – believes there can be no excuses in Rome on Saturday afternoon.
“We have to win, be it by three points, by ten points – it doesn’t matter,” said Henderson. “Our backs are up against the wall. We’ve two out of two losses. We have to go in with a mindset of winning this game.
“Similarly, one of our coaches raised a point in a meeting, we can’t be afraid of losing. We can’t play within ourselves.
“We have to be able to go out there and put on a performance that we will be happy with and proud of and hopefully if we do that, we’ll have come out the right side of the result.”
Ireland squad for Round 3 of the 2021 Guinness Six Nations
Backs: Bundee Aki (Connacht) 30 caps, Billy Burns (Ulster) 5 caps, Ross Byrne (Leinster) 12 caps, Craig Casey (Munster) uncapped, Andrew Conway (Munster) 24 caps, Shane Daly (Munster) 1 cap, Keith Earls (Munster) 90 caps, Chris Farrell (Munster) 14 caps, Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 7 caps, Robbie Henshaw (Leinster) 49 caps, Hugo Keenan (Leinster) 8 caps, Jordan Larmour (Leinster) 26 caps, James Lowe (Leinster) 4 caps, Stuart McCloskey (Ulster) 4 caps, Conor Murray (Munster) 88 caps, Garry Ringrose (Leinster) 32 caps, Jonathan Sexton (Leinster) 96 caps
Forwards: Ryan Baird (Leinster) uncapped, Tadhg Beirne (Munster) 19 caps, Ed Byrne (Leinster) 4 caps, Jack Conan (Leinster) 17 caps, Will Connors (Leinster) 7 caps, Ultan Dillane (Connacht) 18 caps, Tadhg Furlong (Leinster) 46 caps, Cian Healy (Leinster) 106 caps, Dave Heffernan (Connacht) 5 caps, Iain Henderson (Ulster) 60 caps, Rob Herring (Ulster) 18 caps, Ronan Kelleher (Leinster) 8 caps, Dave Kilcoyne (Munster) 40 caps, Tom O’Toole (Ulster) uncapped, Andrew Porter (Leinster) 34 caps, Rhys Ruddock (Leinster) 27 caps, James Ryan (Leinster) 33 caps, CJ Stander (Munster) 48 caps, Josh van der Flier (Leinster) 30 caps
