Sexton was originally named to start in Italy, but a torn tendon in his foot, suffered on Thursday, has eventually forced him out, with Paddy Jackson keeping his starting jersey.

Gilroy returns however to the side as Ireland bid for just their second win of the Championship and to keep their unbeaten record over the Azzurri in the RBS 6 Nations alive.

Elsewhere, Brian O’Driscoll and Luke Marshall have both recovered from knocks taken against France to take their place in the centres while Conor Murray, Donnacha Ryan and Peter O’Mahony have all been passed fit to play.

Kidney has already been deprived of the services of Tommy Bowe, Stephen Ferris, Paul O’Connell and Simon Zebo while Eoin Reddan, who broke his leg last time out, and Fergus McFadden were added to the injury list this week.

And having lost so many players already to injury Kidney is expecting another bruising encounter in Rome.

“Italy is the most physical match in the Six Nations so we’ll be preparing for that and rising to the challenge,” said Kidney, who was not concerned by Ireland’s lack of second-half points throughout the competition.

“We have been working really hard and sometimes you just have to work these things through.

“If we were not creating opportunities there would be a concern but that’s not the case so we’re confident.

“Sometimes if you have not scored as many points in the first half as you’d like, the opposition can cling on and they will always have a purple patch and I think that’s what’s been happening.”

IRELAND

15 Rob Kearney (Leinster)
14 Craig Gilroy (Ulster)
13 Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster)
12 Luke Marshall (Ulster)
11 Keith Earls (Munster)
10 Paddy Jackson (Ulster)
9 Conor Murray (Munster)

1 Cian Healy (Leinster)
2 Rory Best (Ulster)
3 Mike Ross (Leinster)
4 Mike McCarthy (Connacht)
5 Donnacha Ryan (Munster)
6 Peter O'Mahony (Munster)
7 Sean O'Brien (Leinster)
8 Jamie Heaslip (Leinster) captain

Replacements:
16 Sean Cronin (Leinster)
17 David Kilcoyne (Munster)
18 Stephen Archer (Munster)
19 Devin Toner (Leinster)
20 Iain Henderson (Ulster)
21 Paul Marshall (Ulster)
22 Ian Madigan (Leinster)
23 Luke Fitzgerald (Leinster)