The British & Irish Lions have insisted they have no fitness concerns over the veteran tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong and have revealed he and other Premiership and URC finalists will be considered for their opening match against Argentina in Dublin next Friday.<\/p>\n
Furlong, who has started the last six Lions Tests, has not played for his province since early May due to a calf injury, prompting fears over his availability for the Australia tour. Zander Fagerson withdrew from the squad<\/a> on Monday, leaving options at tighthead severely limited.<\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s Finlay Bealham has been called up to replace Fagerson and with Bath\u2019s<\/a> Will Stuart preparing for the Premiership final against Leicester on Saturday, Sale\u2019s 20-year-old Asher Opoku-Fordjour has been called up to the Lions\u2019 Portugal training camp. He and Jamie George \u2013 another called up for the week in the Algarve \u2013 are among 24 players at Andy Farrell\u2019s disposal with Bath, Leicester, Leinster and Toulouse players focused on club commitments.<\/p>\n The Lions forwards coach, John Dalziel, delivered positive news on Duhan van der Merwe, Huw Jones and Mack Hansen, who have been injured recently, and was quick to allay fears over Furlong. Farrell was expected to select the team to face Argentina from the 24 in Portugal, but Dalziel was adamant that club finalists will be considered. \u201cTadhg has the availability to be able to train and play this week with Leinster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no real concerns in terms of his ability to come back to full training. Tadhg had returned to play and was playing. He\u2019s now being modified in terms of [being] off-feet in the last few weeks. We\u2019ve got no real concerns [around] when he comes back to full training and playing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will put our best team and our best foot forward for Argentina, with everybody available the squad will be together on Sunday, everybody in after the finals, then we will select and prepare that team that week. We will get some structures in place here, some language and some learning with the wider group, then we will arrive back in Dublin on Sunday with everyone and prepare for Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n Joseph Suaalii is recovering from a broken jaw. Photograph: Matt King\/Getty for Rugby Australia<\/p>\n Dalziel also revealed that Fagerson, who toured South Africa with the Lions in 2021<\/a>, may return to the squad when fit. \u201cHe\u2019ll become available at the right time and when he\u2019s ready should we need him again. His injury isn\u2019t long term. I think it\u2019s three or four weeks. It\u2019s a setback. He\u2019s looking to try and get through that. As soon as he gets the tick off, he\u2019ll be available to come back into the squad should needs must.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lions arrived in Portugal on Tuesday after convening in Dublin the day before and after a high-octane gym session at the Campus resort on Wednesday, Farrell will run the rule over his players with two training sessions on Thursday and Friday. During their free time, players have been kept entertained by the golf courses and padel courts while Henry Pollock is now in official possession of BiL, the Lions\u2019 mascot, traditionally the responsibility of the youngest member of the squad. He was presented with the toy lion by Maro Itoje, this year\u2019s captain, who had the honour in 2017.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cThe connection piece in modern sport is so important,\u201d said Dalziel. \u201cJust the way the lads have integrated with the coaches, it\u2019s been so pleasing. Everyone has their own personality, but it\u2019s excellent to see guys you\u2019ve previewed, and have been a thorn in your side, you can use them now.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Australia\u2019s star turn Joseph Suaalii has declared himself fit for the series after recovering from a broken jaw. The 21-year-old signing from rugby league \u2013 who starred on his debut against England at Twickenham last November \u2013 was injured last month. \u201cMy face was really big for a bit, I was wearing a face mask everywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s such an important time for myself and Australian rugby and I want to be playing, so obviously I was a little bit of nerves but \u2026 I had surgery maybe three weeks ago now and looking good going into the Lions.\u201d<\/p>\n England have called Henry Arundell into camp this week as they prepare for a clash with a France XV at Twickenham on Saturday week before a tour of Argentina and the US. Arundell, who joins Bath next season, has endured a torrid season with Racing 92 but, given his impending move back to the Premiership, Borthwick has called up the 22-year-old speedster for the first time in 20 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British & Irish Lions have insisted they have no fitness concerns over the veteran tighthead prop Tadhg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-177833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114669272739983317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}