Ireland without four top stars for first World Cup warm-up

No major shocks but Joe Schmidt will be hoping that he can get these lads back.

Cian Healy's return from neck surgery remains the biggest concern for Ireland ahead of their opening world cup warm-up game against Wales. The first half of Simon Easterby's press briefing at Carton House, this morning, revolved around Healy and the other Irish players with lingering fitness queries. Easterby signalled that Luke Fitzgerald, Marty Moore and Sean Cronin, who all had shoulder surgery at the tail-end of last season, would miss this Saturday's clash with the Welsh. 'Cian is progressing nicely, and working week to week with the medical team,' revealed Ireland's forwards coach. 'We’re giving him the best opportunity to get right over the next couple of weeks so we can hopefully include him towards the end of August.' Easterby continued, 'Referring to what was said last week, he is doing his rehabilitation programme and it’s going according to plan. 'It is a week-to-week thing and we don’t want to put too much pressure on his return. I think he’s progressing nicely at the moment, but we’re not going to put any time-scale on it.' There remains the possibility that Healy may yet make the World Cup squad by turning out in Ireland's final warm-up match, against England, on September 5. Easterby, however, stressed that players must be Test match ready by the time the camp wraps up. Healy did train with the squad today but he is not yet ready for full contact, 10 weeks on from surgery to repair an disc in his neck. Hat-tip: @killeroc