Furlong ' fit and raring to go' after calf frustration

Tadhg Furlong says he's confident the calf and ankle injuries that disrupted his campaign last season won't be an issue ahead of the Rugby World Cup.

The Ireland and Leinster tighthead's season was peppered with a persistent calf an ankle problem, which limited him to just 12 games for both province and country.

"At the minute - touch wood - I'm fit and raring to go," Furlong told the RTÉ Rugby podcast as part of the Tackle Your Feelings Schools programme.

An often times frustrating season for the prop was summed up in the Champions Cup final against La Rochelle in May where he carried an injury into the game, but rehabbing the injury over the summer, he's returned to full training with the Irish squad in recent weeks.

And the 30-year-old says he's put that disappointment behind him as he looks to hit the ground running in the RWC warm-up games, which begin on 5 August against Italy (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).

"I was half in rehab, half in training camp, but in the last two weeks I was fully back in the team.

"I feel good, in pre-season you tend to feel good anyway because there's not a whole lot of contact to ding you up.

"I had a good few issues around the calf/ankle, and we cleared up all those, I came back in midway through the Six Nations and then I had a completely different one at the end of the season.

"It was just one of those things, it feels like you're playing whack-a-mole at times, but it's the job we do, it's just the way it is. I've been very fortunate in my career not to have a big injury, like blowing out an ACL or required surgery on one of your major joints.

"Sometimes it's just the price you play, a few niggly ones that hang around."

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