Johnny Sexton is itching to play after confirming that he is fit again to face Italy in Round 3 of the Guinness Six Nations.
The Ireland captain missed the defeat to France a fortnight ago, pulling out a few days before with a hamstring injury.
In his absence, Joey Carbery filled the fly-half spot, but Ireland fell to a 30-24 loss against a strong French side.
After a rest week, Sexton is now fit to take his place in the side once again in the clash with the Azzurri in Dublin on Sunday.
“Yeah, good to go thankfully,” said Sexton when asked whether he would be fit to play.
“I trained fully at the back end of last week and then did a day with the physios the day we played the U20s (Saturday), and then trained fully again today and yesterday, so good to go.
“I pulled out early on the Wednesday (before France) and was hoping it wasn’t too bad, but we went for a scan and it was bad enough to rule me out of the game.”
Ireland’s fate is now no longer in their hands after the defeat to France, a third in a row to Les Bleus.
Sexton had played in the 35-27 loss in Paris in the 2020 Championship, a game in which Ireland could have won the title with a bonus-point success.
That day he came off with ten minutes to go, visibly frustrated, and he admitted it was difficult to miss out on the opportunity to make amends back at the Stade de France.
“I’m not the best spectator and this game was particularly tough,” Sexton said.
“I suppose it was a game I almost had in my head for the last two years, based on what happened there previously and I thought that I was in a great place to go and put that to bed and put those demons to bed.
“Look, bad timing to pick up the small injury that I did, but there was some great learnings for the team in there, but it was definitely tough to watch (from the stands), yeah.”
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