Schmidt ready to reshuffle his Irish side for last three games of the Six Nations

Jose Schmidt is ready to give chances to younger players in Ireland's squad as injury and a poor start have given the New Zealand native plenty to ponder with three games remaining in the Six Nations.

Sean O'Brien (hamstring), Dave Kearney (shoulder) and Mike McCarthy (concussion) have been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament with Johnny Sexton also nursing a rolled ankle sustained during Ireland's open training session in Mullingar yesterday.

Stuart McCloskey, Josh van der Flier and Ultan Dillane are in line to make their international debuts with Schmidt coming under increased pressure to blood some of the younger talent in a tournament that has gone awry for his side.

"I think you will see guys over the next three games that you probably haven't seen in the tournament so far," Schmidt said.

"I don't know which of the games or which number of the games but I think the last two Six Nations we have been hanging in tooth and nail fighting for the wins that we needed or the differential that we needed.

"We haven't been in this position where mathematically we are in with a chance but realistically the chance is a long shot where we actually get a window of opportunity to maybe blood a few new guys and chase results at the same time.

"I don't think it is going to change our outlook in what we want to achieve but it is going to give us an opportunity to maybe look at a few guys like the big fella (McCloskey) there and a few others.

"He is actually bigger than all our loose forwards as well. He is sizeable and he has been working on a few things even post-training with us and we are seeing some good reward from that."

Ireland play England next Saturday at Twickenham before entertaining Italy and Scotland at the Aviva on the 12th and 19th of March, respectively.