Farrell will be without some key men in November.
Having missed the July games with Australia, Japan and New Zealand, captain Caelan Doris is still unavailable as he recovers from knee and foot issues.
With Doris already sidelined, Farrell would have been concerned to see Jack Conan leaving Stade Marcel-Michelin with his arm in a sling after the province’s Champions Cup win over Clermont on Saturday.
The potential absence of both Doris and Conan could create an opportunity for Sean Jansen, who scored a try on his Test debut against Japan before featuring off the bench in the All Blacks defeat.
Fly-half Jack Crowley remains unavailable because of a vascular injury, and while first-choice scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park is expected to be included, the 34-year-old has not yet featured for Leinster this season because of a groin strain.
Props Jack Boyle and Paddy McCarthy are still missing, but Farrell can call upon first-choice loose-head Andrew Porter for the first time since last year’s defeat by the Springboks in Dublin.
Porter, 30, missed the 2026 Six Nations with a calf problem and, having returned for Leinster in late March, he was ruled out of the July Tests with a similar issue.
Porter’s Leinster team-mate Ryan Baird is also available again. The 27-year-old utility forward impressed at blind-side flanker during the 2025 autumn Tests before a fractured tibia forced him to miss the Six Nations. He returned for Leinster late last season but missed the July games.
Popular winger Mack Hansen is also back after an injury-ravaged 2025-26 season comprised of two Test appearances and a single run-out for Connacht.
