Sunday 22 September 2019 17:08, UK
Joe Schmidt is frustrated Ireland's six-day turnaround to face hosts Japan at the Rugby World Cup means Peter O'Mahony and Bundee Aki are struggling to be available.
Flanker O'Mahony and centre Aki both failed head injury assessments (HIAs) in Ireland's 27-3 bonus-point win over Scotland in Yokohama on Sunday.
Head coach Schmidt confirmed neither player was showing any concussion symptoms after their opening Pool A encounter, but was left to lament the coupling of a six-day return-to-play process with the same length of time to his side's next match.
Johnny Sexton, Josh Van Der Flier and Tadhg Furlong were all brought off early, but Schmidt said none had sustained injuries, leaving the concerns over O'Mahony and Aki to rankle with Ireland's head coach.
"Tadhg is fine, Johnny is fine we just decided to bring him off and Conor (Murray) off," said Schmidt.
"We had two HIAs, in Bundee and Pete. They are both symptom-free at the moment, that's reassuring, but we've got to go through the process.
"They failed HIA one, so they've got to go through HIA two and three to determine whether or not they have a concussion.
"Beyond that, the minimum time you can turn around a player is six days. So we'll look at how that pans out over the next probably 48 hours when they do their HIA two and HIA three."
Ireland are not the only nation who face a short turnaround in the World Cup pool stages and Schmidt is in no doubt it makes squad management difficult for all concerned.
"It's a frustration for everyone, because everyone knows they are going to have some tight turnarounds," Schmidt said.
"I know for the Russians they are back out on Tuesday (after playing Japan on Friday night), so that is a real difficulty for them.
"I thought they were incredibly good on Friday evening, the way they threw themselves into the game, and a couple of their players really impressed.
"So for us we've just got to accept it's a six-day turnaround and manage our squad as best we can."
