SIX NATIONS IRELAND v ENGLAND:IRELAND'S SCRUMHALVES are taking something of a battering, literally, in recent times as Tomás O'Leary was ruled out of Saturday's final Six Nations Championship match against England in bizarre circumstances.

It comes just four days after Eoin Reddan was knocked out cold, suffering a concussion after being struck in the face by Welsh fullback Lee Byrne’s attempted clearance in the opening throes of Ireland’s defeat at the Millennium stadium.

O’Leary, who had been hampered by a back injury during the tournament, came through yesterday’s team training session only to suffer an unfortunate accident that saw him damage his eye during a supplementary fitness session yesterday afternoon.

He was undergoing speed training with a sled when one of the straps failed, recoiled and struck him in the left eye. The IRFU confirmed “this caused a bleed within the eye which affected his vision. The bleeding has now stabilised and following an ophthalmology review it is anticipated that this will continue to improve.

“The situation will be reviewed on Friday and the current estimation is that O’Leary will be at least two to three weeks out of training while the condition settles.”

The news regarding Reddan is marginally better. He trained yesterday and will do so again today – albeit with no contact – and will then see a neurologist to ascertain whether he can play at the weekend.

The sequence of events means Ireland coach Declan Kidney will either name the Leinster scrumhalf in his match 22 when he announces the team and replacements for Saturday’s clash with England at lunchtime today or leave a vacancy as Reddan won’t have seen the neurologist at that point. The team management are following the IRB protocol on concussion.

An extended Irish squad of 31 players attended yesterday morning’s session, the 22-man match squad from the Welsh game along with Donncha Ryan, Andrew Trimble, Kevin McLaughlin, Tony Buckley, Mick O’Driscoll, Johne Murphy, Rhys Ruddock, Fergus McFadden and the unfortunate O’Leary.

David Wallace (sore thumb) and Cian Healy (bumps and bruises) sat out training but team manager Paul McNaughton confirmed both would be available when the team announcement is made.

He was unequivocal on the manner in which Ireland will prepare and select for this weekend’s final Six Nations.

“The approach is going to be to pick the best team that we think is suitable to beat England and to continue on the game we are playing. The coaches will look at all of those areas. We feel that we are still creating chances, which is good. We are not taking all of them, which is bad.

“They feel that the scrum and lineout is going well. Our kicking game was poor (against Wales), especially the ping pong between their back three and our back three. We will be selecting as we have for every match this season on the basis of what’s the best side to beat the next opposition. We won’t be developing, we won’t be rotating; it’s just picking a team most suited to beating England.”

McNaughton then clarified an issue with regard to England’s 22-year-old American-born, London Irish prop Alex Corbisiero, confirming the Irish team management had spoken to the player in the past about taking up the option of playing for Ireland: the player’s family lineage would have allowed him to declare for the USA, England, Italy or Ireland.

The fact he played for England at age-grade level from Under-18 up – he won a Grand Slam with the English Under-20s and also played in the IRB Junior World Cup final with the same team – influenced his decision to try to work his way into the English squad.

McNaughton explained: “We did talk to him about whether he would be interested. This was when he was coming through at London Irish and attracting attention (of the English RFU). I think he has an Irish grandparent but he was born and raised in the UK, went to school there and played through the youth system.

“It was a preliminary enquiry by us. We knew the guy was Irish qualified so we had a brief conversation with him. He played in London with London Irish, Bob Casey told us about him as well.

“When you hear of any prop playing in the Premiership who is Irish qualified you enquire.”