Having failed to make the trip to France, Heaslip was widely reported to be out of Ireland’s visit to Italy next weekend, along with John Hayes and Shane Hogan.

But speaking at the RBS 6 Nations launch at the Hurlingham Club, Kidney insisted the decision was far from clear cut.

“Jamie and Tommy are seeing a specialist today. We won’t know more until tonight or tomorrow morning,” said Kidney at the official launch.

“We just want to see exactly where Jamie is.

“We wouldn’t like to say he’s definitely out — not until we get the report from the specialist. The money is probably against him but we’ll keep our options open until the news is definitely bad.

“You never like to see guys injured — we know how much playing for Ireland means to those guys.

“They’d be gutted were they to lose out at this stage of the season.

“But we’ve also tried to build a squad over the last few years and this will be the test of that. I have a huge belief in the way Irish rugby comes from the grass roots up. Of course there won’t be as much video analysis on the new guys so that will be an advantage.”