Ireland's Wafer 'definitely not' out of World Cup

Wafer scored four tries during Ireland's Women's Six Nations campaign

Ireland are "quite confident" injured back row Aoife Wafer will "play some part" in the Women's Rugby World Cup, says scrum coach Denis Fogarty.

The 2025 Women's Six Nations Player of the Championship - who will join Harlequins from Leinster after the World Cup - emerged as a doubt for the tournament earlier this month after undergoing knee surgery.

The 22-year-old flanker is set to miss Ireland's warm-up games against Scotland on Saturday and Canada on 9 August, while it is unclear if she will regain fitness in time for the Pool C opener against Japan on 24 August.

Ireland also face Spain on 31 August and holders New Zealand on 7 September in their pool.

"She's got a procedure done so she's definitely not ruled out of the World Cup yet," said Fogarty on Wafer.

"We're taking it week by week in terms of when her return to play is, but she's not ruled out of the World Cup anyway."

When pressed if Wafer was in a race against time to recover in time for the tournament in England, Fogarty responded: "No, we're quite confident that she will play some part in the World Cup, which is really, really pleasing.

"At the moment she's tracking really well. It's just making sure it's right for her when she comes back into it."

Ireland have been hit by injury setbacks in the build-up to the World Cup, with forwards Erin King and Dorothy Wall ruled out.

"There's no doubt about it, losing three key players like that has been difficult," added Fogarty.

"But that's the nature of the game. We've had Sam [Monaghan] coming back in, which is a big addition for us and there's been other girls coming through which have impressed us throughout the camp.

"Injuries like that, they're always going to come. They're not ideal going into a World Cup but it's something we have to deal with and adapt with and that's what we've done over the last couple of weeks."