O’Driscoll suffered the damage in Ireland’s fractious warm-up game against French club Bayonne last month and was expected to miss the clash against the Pool D minnows in Bordeaux.

But the Leinster centre’s rehabilitation has progressed ahead of schedule and head coach Eddie O’Sullivan has restored him to the starting line-up.

Leicester’s Geordan Murphy is relegated to the bench to make room, Andrew Trimble of Ulster moves to the right wing and Munster’s Brian Carney drops out of the squad.

In another timely lift for Ireland, David Wallace has been named at openside after the dynamic Munster forward was finally passed fit following a six-month battle with a chronic ankle injury.

Wallace has not played a Test since the final RBS 6 Nations match against Italy in March and missed the whole of the build-up to the World Cup.

But the 31-year-old’s six-month enforced international exile is over after the medical team gave him the all clear to start Ireland’s World Cup campaign.

Wallace’s inclusion means Neil Best of Ulster must settle for a place among the substitutes with his provincial team-mate Stephen Ferris losing his place on the bench.

Overall the team shows just three changes, one positional, to the side that scraped past Italy 23-20 in the final warm-up match.

O’Sullivan has been able to name a near full-strength side with only Leinster winger Shane Horgan unavailable.

Horgan sustained an ankle injury while warming up for last month’s defeat by Scotland but is expected to be back to face Georgia in Ireland’s second Pool D clash.

O’Sullivan said: “We wanted to start the competition strongly so we’ve picked our strongest available side.

“The warm-up matches didn’t have any bearing on my team selection - we want to put our best foot forward in the first game.

“We’ll see how this game unfolds before deciding on what team to pick for Georgia. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.

“Everyone is keen to get on the field and get some games under their belts.”

O’Sullivan revealed Denis Hickie missed training on Thursday through illness but expects the Leinster winger to be ready to face Namibia.