Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has admitted that Andrew Trimble was unlucky to miss out on a place in his Rugby World Cup squad.
The experienced wing, who has recently struggled with a toe injury, was left out of the 31-man party when it was announced on Tuesday.
Schmidt has conceded that the decision to leave out the 30-year-old was a difficult one.
"We spent six hours on Sunday [picking the squad]. For some of those six hours Andrew was coming to the World Cup. That's how close it was," he is quoted as saying by BBC Sport.
"The difficulty was that Andrew had played 34 minutes of a Test match. He played 80 minutes for Ulster. In between that, he'd hurt the foot again and it just interrupted his opportunity to press for selection.
"Ability, commitment and what he's contributed when he has played for us all certainly counted for him. That's why it was one of the very, very difficult decisions that we made."
Trimble has made 58 appearances for Ireland since 2005.
Jack Prescott
