Ireland full-back Rob Kearney is the latest star that appears likely to miss the side’s opening Rugby World Cup game against Scotland on Sunday.

The Leinster man is reported to be suffering from a calf problem that he picked up during training earlier today and now is a major doubt for not only the team’s Scottish clash but also their game against Japan six days later. 

If Kearney is to miss the game it would seem likely that head coach Joe Schmidt would pick either one of Andrew Conway or Jordan Larmour in the 15 jersey, but it is far from ideal. 

Kearney’s injury follows the news that centre Robbie Henshaw is unlikely to feature during the game with Scots as he tries to overcome a hamstring injury, with Will Addison apparently on standby back in Ireland. 

However, unlike Kearney’s injury Ireland are well covered in the midfield with Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki and Chris Farrell all fighting to make it into the starting XV. 

Elsewhere, Joey Carbery is training once more following the ankle injury he picked up against Italy in their opening warm-up game.

However, wing Keith Earls is still not training fully in what is another worry for the Irish as the injuries continue to pile up. 

Ireland open up their World Cup campaign against Scotland on Sunday, before games against hosts Japan, Russia and Samoa as they look to progress from pool A, but they will be hoping some of their key men will be back in action for those clashes. 

Ireland centre Robbie Henshaw appears set to miss the team’s Rugby World Cup opening game against Scotland on Sunday with a hamstring injury.

The Irish camp are not giving up hope on Henshaw recovering, but they have finally admitted that he is “unlikely to feature” against the Scots. Ireland’s scrum coach Greg Feek confirmed the news to the media. 

“Robbie’s looking very, very unlikely for this weekend obviously. But we’ve just got back from training and still sorting things out, but I think it’s reasonably positive in terms of what we saw,” he said. 

However, despite seeming very unlikely to play this weekend Feek is confident that Henshaw will return to action soon. 

“Some of these guys, day by day, week by week, they can improve dramatically as opposed to the average human. So we’ll just take it like that at the moment. It’s looking positive, so from here on in we’ll just see how it goes in the next few days and then maybe reassess in the not too distant future. He’s a good man, great to have around, his work ethic is incredible and you know he’s doing the work. To be at this stage now there’s probably a sense of relief,” he added. 

The IRFU have confirmed that Henshaw will remain in Japan with the 31-man squad, despite reports claiming that Will Addison is set to be called up by head coach Joe Schmidt, but they have decided not to release the full details of Henshaw’s injury yet which is a worrying sign. 

In more positive news for Irish fans Feek also confirmed that fly-half Joey Carbery has been training fully as he continues to recover from an injury he picked up against Italy in a World Cup warm-up game. 

“Joey was running around today and trained, he looked pretty good. So we’re just all really happy for him more than anything,” he finished. 

Ireland will hope that Henshaw will recover in time to face Japan in their second game of the pool stages, however, all focus will be on kicking their campaign off with a perfect start against the Scots on Sunday. 

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