Joe Schmidt preparing for last-minute World Cup call on Cian Healy

"The actual nerve is in good shape and the pressure is bring released off it but it takes a while to recover," Schmidt told the Irish Independent. "How long's a piece of string? We know he's making progress. He's a quality individual in the camp, and a quality player, so we'll give him as long as we can to make enough progress so we're comfortable he can reintegrate fully into playing the game." With four warm-up games, Schmidt has plenty of opportunities to give alternatives such as Jack McGrath and Michael Bent game-time, but what he really wants is to see Healy take to the field at least once before making a decision on his inclusion or otherwise in the final 31-man panel.

"Potentially we'd like to get him into one of the last couple (of warm-ups) and there's a chance of that," Schmidt added. "If he's made enough progress and is training fully but hasn't played prior to England, and we don't select him for that, then we've got a tough decision to make. "But if he was fully fit at that stage? Because he's played so many times for us already, and because he's a quality player, you'd want to select him. We won't actually know until the 31 whether he'll be in it or not."