Ireland lose van der Flier for remainder of season

Leinster and Ireland flanker Josh van der Flier has been ruled out for the remainder of the season having picked up a knee injury against France in the Six Nations opener on Saturday.

The openside was replaced by fellow Leinster back-rower Dan Leavy after 36 minutes in the Stade de France after he sustained a serious knee ligament injury.

Meanwhile, Joe Schmidt has options in the back-row to replace van der Flier with Jordi Murphy also available to fill the void against Italy this week.

In other squad news, Dave Kilcoyne has re-joined the squad while Jack O'Donoghue and Barry Daly will train with the group during the early part of this week.

Andrew Conway will continue his rehab at Munster this week while James Cronin has returned to Limerick in order to garner some game minutes with Munster in the Guinness Pro14 this weekend.