Ireland suffer another injury blow ahead of Six Nations opener with England

Ireland could be without Ulster second-row Iain Henderson for their Six Nations opener with England next month with the Lions lock set to spend some time on the sidelines after suffering a finger injury during Ulster's win over Leicester on Saturday.

Henderson was named in Joe Schmidt's 38-man squad for the opening rounds of Ireland's Grand Slam defence after recently returning to Ulster from a thumb injury. The finger injury is apparently unrelated to the initial thumb injury but his loss follows the injury to Munster second-row Tadhg Beirne who will also miss a couple of weeks after suffering damage to his knee ligaments in the province's win over Gloucester. Connacht second-row Quinn Roux was called up to replace Beirne, while we await to see who Schmidt will bring in as cover for Henderson, but the New Zealander did namecheck Gavin Thornbury, Fineen Wycherley, Billy Holland and Kieran Treadwell when he announced his squad.

"Quinn Roux was very close to selection in the second row, which has become highly competitive with youngsters Gav Thornbury, Fineen Wycherley and Kieran Treadwell all impressing of late along with the experienced Billy Holland."