Ireland wing James Lowe will miss the rest of the Six Nations after suffering a groin injury.
Lowe was forced off just 18 minutes into Ireland’s 42-21 win over England at Twickenham after booting the ball into touch in obvious discomfort having suffered the issue.
While the 33-year-old will see a specialist over the next couple of days to determine the severity, Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby confirmed that his tournament is likely over.
“He's struggling," the Ireland defence coach said of Lowe. “You could see when he tried to take off that he did something nasty.
"Lowey's pretty tough. He was getting up and down on the sideline when things were going well for us and he was part of the cheerleading group on the sideline.
"I think the next couple of days will probably be reflected on his involvement before the end of the Six Nations."
Lowe was replaced by clubmate Tommy O’Brien at Allianz Stadium, with the inexperienced wing impressing and perhaps in line to earn a starting shirt against Wales next Friday.
Robert Baloucoune is almost certain to keep the No 14 jersey after a standout performance in round three.
The manner of their victory over England has restored much of the faith in Andy Farrell’s side, though Easterby cautioned that they could not afford to get carried away.
"I guess one result against England in Twickenham, it doesn't give us the right to sit back and reflect and enjoy that, because you know you've got another game coming up against Wales who performed really well against Scotland,” Easterby explained to RTE.
"Our philosophy has always been to be really diligent around the fundamentals in our game and make sure that we keep honing those skills and keep mastering those skills in training to allow us to keep performing and we'll need to get better again next week.
"It's a different game, it's a different team that we're playing against. They [Wales] have got different skillsets and they've got different threats to England. We need to make sure we stay on top of that."
