Andy Farrell joked Ireland may have to borrow players from a local side's Under-12s to face England after losing five more to injury in their Six Nations victory over Scotland.
Ireland claimed a well-earned 22-7 victory at Murrayfield on Sunday to take their Grand Slam hopes down to next weekend's final game against England.
Farrell's men have now won seven matches in a row in the competition – their joint-best ever run – but their latest victory may have come at a cost.
The visitors lost three of their starting forward pack inside the first 25 minutes, with Caelan Doris, Dan Sheehan and Iain Henderson making way.
Replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher was next to exit the field, leaving prop Cian Healy at hooker and flanker Josh van der Flier the lineout thrower
Garry Ringrose then sustained a serious-looking head injury late on, potentially leaving Farrell with a major selection problem for the visit of England in six days' time.
"We'll go again. We'll have a good squad," Farrell told BBC Sport. "If we get any more injuries in the week we might have to have a look at Old Belvedere Under-12s!
"We'll lick our wounds and go again. England will be dangerous, but it'll be one hell of a weekend on St Patrick's Day."
There was little between the sides after a tense first half in which Mack Hansen cancelled out Huw Jones' try, with that the Scotland centre's tournament-high fourth of 2023.
Ireland's quality eventually told, though, as James Lowe crossed over with 56 minutes played and Jack Conan powered over to put the game out of the home side's reach.
"It was an amazing Test match," Farrell said. "There was a bit of organised chaos at half-time, but everyone had a smile on their face.
"We didn't get the try early on, then lost Caelan. It's a monumental effort, but that's what these boys expect of each other. They've earned the right to take it to the last weekend.
"The lads can do anything at this moment in time. How we looked after each other was the most impressive thing."
Scotland would have had a second try in the first period if not for a superb Hugo Keenan challenge to stop Duhan van der Merwe from reaching the line.
Just one point separated Scotland and Ireland at half-time for the seventh time in nine Tests at Murrayfield, but Ireland found a way to make it six wins in a row in this fixture.
Johnny Sexton, who kicked seven points to draw level with compatriot Ronan O'Gara in the all-time list of Six Nations points scorers, is proud of the way his side dug in.
"It was an incredibly tough game," he told BBC Sport. "Anytime you come to Murrayfield you know you're in a Test match. That was one of the toughest first halves I've played.
"We knew it would be tough, and we're delighted to come away with the win. Now we've got to get the bodies back together.
"We'll be playing against an English team that are hurting and one that we have huge respect for. The Irish people will get behind us next week, so we're looking forward to that."
A second defeat in a row for Scotland brings and end to their campaign, and head coach Gregor Townsend accepts Ireland were the better side over the 80 minutes.
"I'd rather talk about the first half than the second half, because the second half was disappointing," he said. "We created chances in that first half.
"It was a real high energy performance – what you'd call a proper Test match. Both teams were a little fatigued at the start of the second half, it was there for us to lift the energy.
"We didn't; we weren't accurate enough. Ireland grew in confidence and were clearly the better team in the second half. We're disappointed with the fact we didn't kick on.
"What we wanted today was a complete, 80-minute performance. We only got it for 40. We know we'll have to play well next week. Italy come here with nothing to lose."
'It's time for a magical night at home,' says Vinicius ahead of Bayern Munich second leg
Vinicius Junior is eyeing "a magical night at home" when Real Madrid welcome Bayern Munich for their Champions League semi-final second leg next week.
The two European heavyweights shared a 2-2 draw in a pulsating first leg at the Allianz Arena, setting up a grandstand climax when the battle resumes at Santiago Bernabeu.
Vinicius opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but Madrid found themselves 2-1 behind in the second half after Leroy Sane levelled and Harry Kane slotted home from the penalty spot.
However, the Brazil international was also on target from the penalty spot to ensure a share of the spoils with his 31st direct goal involvement in the Champions League since the start of the 2021-22 season - more than any other player in that time.
"We always want to win, but we know that this competition is like that, you can't give away balls because teams score the chances they have," he said, as reported by Reuters.
"We have to keep our heads calm, rest until next week, and we know that we and the fans are going to leave everything at the Santiago Bernabeu to qualify.
"Now it's time for a magical night at home to win and secure our place in the final."
Vinicius' first goal saw him calmly slide home from Toni Kroos' delicious throughball, with the latter playing 15 line-breaking passes in the first half - at least 10 more than any other player on the pitch.
Rodrygo, who was fouled by Kim Min-jae for the penalty that led to Madrid's second goal, paid tribute to the 34-year-old.
"We all keep telling him to keep on playing for not just one more season, but many seasons to come yet," he told Movistar. "He's genuinely a maestro with talent which people love to watch, and we all love to play with.
"If we couldn't win, we were determined not to lose. Given what went on, a draw's a good result. We know the Champions League. We're accustomed to matches like this.
"I believe that teams think they've killed us off, and that's when we are at our most dangerous."
Champions League success does not define Bayern move, says Kane
Harry Kane refuted suggestions Champions League glory this season will decide the success of his Bayern Munich move, after Tuesday's 2-2 draw with Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg.
Kane scored from the penalty spot to make it 2-1 to Bayern early in the second half, just four minutes after Leroy Sane had levelled with a thunderous finish at Allianz Arena.
Having finished with his usual ease from 12 yards, Kane became the first English player to be directly involved in 11 goals in a single Champions League campaign.
Kane is the joint-top scorer across Europe's big five leagues in all competitions this season (43 – level with Kylian Mbappe), while the England captain now has the most combined goals and assists of any player (54 – 43 goals and 11 assists).
Regardless of whether Bayern can overcome Madrid in the second leg next week and go all the way in the final, Kane insists his move to Germany is a long-term mission, rather than a one-year aim for success.
When asked on TNT Sports if winning the Champions League would define his Bayern move as a success, Kane responded: "I don't think so.
"I'm here for many years, it's not just a one-off year that I've come for. Of course, the expectation at the start of the year was to win trophies and it hasn't gone our way in the Bundesliga or the cup, but the Champions League is the biggest one of them all.
"If we can somehow get our hands on that one, it'll be an amazing season, but there is a long way to go.
"These are the big games under the lights [that I'm here for]. The atmosphere was incredible. I'm sure at the Bernabeu it'll be the same. It's exactly why I’ve come, I wanted to play in these big games, these big moments, and it's no bigger than next week.
"It'll be tough, we know their history in the competition, but we can take a lot of positives from today. There's a couple of small details that we need to get right because we can get punished in a couple of quick moments, but we can take a lot from this game."
Kane now has 401 goals for club and country, having moved past the quadruple-century mark with his double against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Including his well-taken penalty against Madrid, the former Tottenham striker now has a personal-best 43 goals in all competitions this season as well.
Yet his focus remains solely on the next game, with Stuttgart to come on Saturday before the return visit to Madrid.
"It's been a good season [personally] so far, but it's always about the next game, the next big game, and it's next week, away from home against Real Madrid," he added.
"Everything we're fighting for this year is in this competition, so we've got to find a way to get it done. It's going to be tough, the Bernabeu, Real Madrid in the Champions League, but we go there with full belief, it's 0-0 and we go there for the win."
Kane's second-half strike on Tuesday came after Sane had cancelled out an opener from Vinicius Junior, whose late penalty then ensured the shares were spoiled at Allianz Arena.
With the pressure on Bayern's spot-kick, Madrid's Jude Bellingham appeared to offer Kane a few words of advice – though the Bayern striker was in his own space preparing to face Andriy Lunin.
"I don't know what he was saying," Kane added on his England team-mate's quiet word. "I saw him there, mumbling something, but I'll have to ask him what he said.
"Once I'm in that zone I'm just trying to block everything out – I'm sure he was saying something to try and put me off. Thankfully it didn't do anything."
Coventry City 1-2 Ipswich Town: Burgess puts Tractor Boys on brink of promotion
Ipswich Town took a huge step to Premier League promotion after Cameron Burgess snatched a second-half winner in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Coventry City.
Kieran McKenna's side require just one point from their final Championship game against League One-bound Huddersfield Town to go up, after a decisive victory at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Kieffer Moore blasted in an eighth-minute opener for the visitors after Wes Burns' crafty cutback pass, easing the pressure on Ipswich and dampening the top-two hopes of third-placed Leeds United.
Haji Wright levelled in the second half, only for Burgess to squeeze a winning goal past Bradley Collins five minutes later, putting Ipswich on the brink of top-flight football for the first time since their relegation in 2002.
A draw against Huddersfield, who are 23rd and three points adrift of safety, would secure promotion at Portman Road, marking just the fourth instance of back-to-back promotions in the Premier League era.
Having managed to climb out of League One, McKenna's entertaining side would join Watford, rivals Norwich City and Southampton as the only sides to achieve the feat.
Data Debrief: Ipswich end winless run at perfect time
Prior to this game, only five teams had won fewer points in the Championship than Ipswich's six since the beginning of April (W1 D3 L1).
Yet McKenna's men refused to let their top-flight push derail as the Tractor Boys ended a four-game winless run to move within touching distance of history.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
