Ireland without Henshaw for decider
The Leinster-bound centre is understood to have damaged his cartilage when tackling Lionel Mapoe during the second-half of his side’s 32-26 defeat to the Springboks and was replaced by Ian Madigan.
Ireland coach Joe Schmidt is unlikely to call up a replacement for Henshaw given that the coach has options within his squad to fill the gap at outside centre.
"To be honest, if we can cover it internally we probably will at this stage. It's pretty difficult to get them up to speed and to get them down here is a bit of a mission even," Schmidt said.
"They wouldn't be able to get down probably until the Monday or Tuesday morning depending on flights and then that's pretty late in the piece to suddenly launch yourself into a Test team.
"There are options with Luke Marshall still being in the squad. The first Test was Luke's first full Test for us for a long time and I thought he did a super job. He's played a fair bit at 13 this year so he would be one option, as would Jared Payne.
"He could slip back up into the 13 spot and Tiernan O'Halloran could go to 15," he added.
CJ Stander is available again after serving his one-game ban, while Mike Ross, Keith Earls, Jordi Murphy and Ultan Dillane are likely to come back into the squad.
Eoin Reddan and Matt Healy, the only players yet to feature against the Springboks, may also have some involvement.
South Africa have injury worries of their own, with try-scorer Warren Whiteley struggling with his shoulder and Duane Vermeulen – who was replaced by Whiteley at half-time – suffering an elbow problem.
Ireland travelled to the coastal city of Port Elizabeth ahead of the final game and Schmidt will rest his players on Monday in an attempt to freshen things up for the decider.
"We'll glue ourselves back together and have a look," he said. "The fatigue factor comes in, you try to get a lead in the next 48 hours on who is recovering and who is bouncing back and we'll leave all those decisions probably as late as possible.
"Some guys might still be a bit fatigued on Tuesday but we might want to give them a little bit more time and see how they go on Thursday and maybe even bracket a couple of guys if needs be," he added.
Source: @IndoSport
