IRELAND HAVE CONFIRMED that experienced loosehead prop Cian Healy is now on their World Cup standby list after completing a remarkable recovery from the calf injury that prevented him from being included in Andy Farrell’s squad for the tournament.

Healy suffered the injury in Ireland’s final warm-up game against Samoa and missed out on being named in the final 33-man squad as a result, with Jeremy Loughman joining Andrew Porter and Dave Kilcoyne as the loosehead options.

However, Healy has returned to fitness ahead of schedule and is now part of the standby list that can be called on if Ireland suffer any injuries at the World Cup. Healy posted an impressive training montage on his social media on Thursday.

“It wasn’t easy getting here, but happy the body still knows how to recover ahead of schedule,” wrote Healy. ”Looking forward to getting back to it and will be forever grateful to those who got me to this point.”

35-year-old Healy’s vast experience would be useful if Ireland beat Scotland this weekend and qualify for the quarter-finals, although another player would need to be injured if Ireland were to add Healy to their squad.

“The medics and strength and conditioning team would be in touch with Cian and, I’m sure, other players back home to see how they are,” said Ireland team manager Mick Kearney today in Tours.

“It’s great to see Cian back training and training well. Possibly later in the tournament if we get an injury, Cian would be a great addition if fully fit. It’s good to see him back training, but it would require another injury for Cian to come back in.”

Kearney said the Ireland coaches have been keeping an eye on events at home where the provinces have been playing each other in pre-season friendly games, which were encouraged by the IRFU.

Several of the players who were involved in Ireland’s World Cup preparation over the summer but missed out on the final squad have been playing in those matches.

“There was a lot of discussion with the provinces in pre-season as to how we would keep the players fit who are not in the squad,” said Kearney.

“There’s a mini-interprovincial series going on. The likes of Jamie Osborne, Gavin Coombes, and Kieran Treadwell are getting regular game time.

“It’s really good they’ll be match fit if they get called in.”

Ireland resumed training in Tours on Thursday after Andy Farrell gave his players three days off in the wake of their win over South Africa last weekend.

All 33 players in the squad are currently training and Jack Conan looks set to return from injury against Scotland this weekend.

“Everybody’s great,” said Kearney. “Obviously, we got back to Tours on Wednesday after a couple of great days off. Some of the lads stayed in Paris, some came straight back here with their families.