Andy Farrell Simon Easterby Ciarán Frawley Ireland New Zealand All Blacks Sport Rugby Andy Farrell Simon Easterby Ciarán Frawley Ireland New Zealand

Rónan Kelleher on course to return as Ireland ramp up preparations for All Blacks

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Hooker Rónan Kelleher is on course to be fit for Ireland's Test match against New Zealand on Friday week.The Leinster front row suffered an ankle injury on 5 October against Benetton, and was initially given a four to six-week recovery timeline following an operation.With Dan Sheehan out until the New Year and Rob Herring yet to play for Ulster this season, the likely availability of the 26-year-old is a big boost for the Six Nations champions.Additionally, Leinster out-half Ciarán Frawley (ankle) and Connacht winger Mack Hansen (hip), who both missed the last round of URC games, are expected to be fit."Yeah, for sure, he's doing well," defence coach Simon Easterby told RTÉ Sport when asked about Kelleher."Everyone was good today, we're really pleased."The medics have done a great job on top of the provincial stuff and then the transition into national camp has been seamless in terms of those players coming in with a couple of niggles."So far so good and hopefully we will have a full deck to train with tomorrow and leading into next week."[Mack] is progressing really well.

Like Rónan and Rob Herring and a few others, they are working incredibly hard and come into camp in a good place and continue that progression."Meanwhile, Easterby said that Peter O'Mahony is likely to join up with the squad providing he comes through Munster's game against the All Blacks XV on Saturday with no problems after a hamstring injury."Pete's position was that we wanted to make sure he gets game time and he'll do that this weekend in the Munster jersey and hopefully he'll come into camp if he gets through the weekend," said Easterby, who will take over as interim head coach after the November internationals when Andy Farrell begins his Lions

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