Ireland hooker Ronan Kelleher feeling ‘unbelievably healthy’ ahead of World Cup

Hooker Ronan Kelleher insisted his “body feels unbelievably healthy” as he declared himself fit for Ireland’s Rugby World Cup opener.

The 25-year-old has endured a series of injury setbacks during the past 18 months and missed each of his country’s warm-up matches amid a hamstring issue.

Ireland flew to France on Thursday with potential problems in the middle of their front row as first-choice number two Dan Sheehan sustained a foot injury in last month’s win over England.

Scrum coach John Fogarty said on Monday that none of Ireland’s 33-man squad have been ruled out of Saturday’s Pool B clash with Romania in Bordeaux, while Kelleher was extremely positive about his own condition.

“I’m fighting fit and ready to go,” he said. “I’ve been training fully and I’m just raring to get going now. I had a few little niggles there over the last couple of weeks.

“There’s obviously two ways of looking at it. You’d be thinking ‘maybe I haven’t got a couple of games under the belt, which I would have liked’, but at the same time my body feels unbelievably healthy, so it’s great.

“You very rarely go into matches feeling 100 per cent healthy. For me personally, first World Cup, really looking forward to it.

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“It’s been unfortunate really, just unlucky, but the medics have done some job getting us all back fit and it’s just about staying on top of it now that we’re out here.”

In addition to Kelleher and Sheehan, prop Dave Kilcoyne and back-rower Jack Conan were sidelined during the build-up to the tournament.

Ireland boss Andy Farrell, who also has Ulster hooker Rob Herring at his disposal, has remained upbeat amid the fitness