Wafer ‘very close’ to Ireland return after knee injury

Aoife Wafer, the star back rower, is “very close” to recovering from a knee injury, according to Ireland assistant coach Alex Codling.

After having knee surgery last month, Ireland’s Women’s Six Nations player of the year did not make it to their opening World Cup match against Japan.

Wafer spent the last week in Dublin to continue her rehab, and Codling made no mention of Wafer’s potential clash with Spain in Northampton on Sunday (12:00 BST), despite the 22-year-old having trained with the squad since arriving in England.

She’s working extremely hard, returning, and coming very close, Codling said.

Codling continued, “I’m not working directly with her, but she joined in with the lineouts, which indicates that she’s on track and going really well.”

After the co-captain missed a portion of Wednesday’s training session, Codling added that Ireland are “looking after” Edel McMahon.

McMahon managed 75 minutes of the win over Japan despite missing both warm-up games.

We are managing a lot of players, and she’s obviously been out for a while, so it’s important for us as a coaching group, said Codling.

We’re looking after her and making sure she’s fit and ready because she was exceptional over the weekend.

Spain lost to New Zealand, who are currently defending their World Cup title, 54-8, but won the 2021 World Cup qualifier against Ireland to close the gap.

Spain is eighth in the world, eight places behind Ireland, but Codling claims that “a piece of paper has never won games.”

“We treat everyone the same, for a variety of reasons,” I believe. They will undoubtedly challenge us as a team.