Joe Schmidt is confident he has the midfield firepower to cope without Robbie Henshaw in Ireland's World Cup opener on Sunday.
There will be an update on Henshaw's hamstring problem this morning but it is expected that the 27-year-old will miss the crunch Yokohama clash. Keith Earls also looks to be out of contention.
The winger is due to resume full training on Wednesday, when Schmidt will select his team, or Thursday after he suffered a tendonitis issue in his knee.
Garry Ringrose is favourite to replace Henshaw in the no 13 jersey and partner Bundee Aki at centre, although Chris Farrell is also in contention.
"At this stage, they’ve all slotted in," said Schmidt. "On Saturday, we didn’t train for particularly long as a team.
"We probably trained for about 30 minutes, so it wasn’t a long training and in that 30 minutes guys went in and out.
"So, we believe that Bundee can play 12 and so can Chris - and Chris can play 13 and so can Garry Ringrose.
“When we played Scotland earlier this year in the Six Nations, Bundee and Chris played together and did a good job. We know that last year, Garry came in cold after Chris had been player of the match against Wales and played very well against Scotland.
“So in recent times they’ve both got form against Scotland specifically and we know the different strengths they bring to the game.
"We’ll keep an eye on that (weather) forecast and we’ll see what we feel is the best decision for the team."
Torrential rain is forecast for Yokohama on Sunday. Schmidt was hopeful that Henshaw will recover quickly.
“You always hope against hope and I’m hoping it was just cramp and the travel and things, and that Robbie’s not too bad," he said.
"And as much as I say I’d be surprised if he’s in, I wouldn’t completely rule him out as yet.”
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