Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has retained a 24 man training squad ahead of the Italy game on Saturday week with 12 players released back to their Provinces.

Harry Byrne, John Cooney and Eric O'Sullivan have also been released from the squad ahead of this weekend's Pro14 action.

All three provided specialist injury cover for Sunday's Six Nations game against France.

A statement from the IRFU read: "There were no additional injury concerns following the match against France and the players (Billy Burns, Cian Healy, Iain Henderson) who were removed for HIAs will follow the appropriate protocols this week."

The twelve players to return to their provincial bubbles are Bundee Aki, Ultan Dillane, Dave Heffernan (Connacht), Ryan Baird, Ross Byrne, Jack Conan (Leinster), Craig Casey, Andrew Conway, Shane Daly, Chris Farrell (Munster) and Stuart McCloskey, Tom O'Toole (Ulster).

The IRFU also confirmed that the entire squad and backroom team returned negative results from their PCR testing on Monday.

However, the French squad have been forced to isolate after a member of Fabien Galthie's backroom team tested positive for Covid-19 following their win against Ireland on Sunday.

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"All members of the Ireland squad and backroom team undertook routine PCR testing on Monday producing no positive results. The group will undergo further routine testing again this week as per our protocols."#ShoulderToShoulder pic.twitter.com/T3d1hgItrb

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Meanwhile, Peter O’Mahony has also returned to Munster training this week due to his suspension following his red card in Ireland's defeat to Wales earlier this month.

Munster also say Joey Carbery is increasing his training load further as he continues his return from an ankle injury.

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