Sheehan recovery 'ahead of schedule', reveals Farrell

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is increasingly optimistic about Dan Sheehan's injury recovery time-line ahead of the start of the Rugby World Cup.

Sheehan damaged ligaments in his foot in Ireland’s warm-up victory over England at the Aviva Stadium and there had been fears that the injury could see him miss out on the tournament.

However, he was included in Farrell’s final World Cup squad and while he may not be risked in Ireland’s opening game against Romania next Saturday, Farrell confirmed that the hooker is further along in his recovery that he had expected him to be.

Andy Farrell offered some injury updates from the French city of Tours this morning:
- Dan Sheehan ("ahead of schedule")
- Jack Conan ("trained yesterday")
- Ronan Kelleher ("fit to go") #RTErugby pic.twitter.com/127FN4z5m0

"He’s flying it, he’s ahead of schedule to where he should be," the Ireland head coach said. "So all things are pointing in a positive direction but at the stage that we’re at, all things need to align.

"He’s back running well ahead of schedule. It all starts off on AlterG [an anti-gravity treadmill] to see whether they can cope with running et cetera.

"He was back running last week, he was flying along yesterday with the physios and he’s certainly bullish within himself and so are the medics as well."

There were also positive updates on the fitness of Jack Conan and Ronan Kelleher.

Conan has been carrying a foot injury, while Kelleher looks to have recovered from a hamstring issue.

Farrell said: "Jack trained yesterday and obviously end-stage rehab is always about being able to back it up the next day, so we’ll so how that goes today.

"Ronan was fit last week so he’s certainly fit to go. He did a full session yesterday so he’ll back that up