D'Arcy and O'Driscoll hope to face France on 12 March

O'Driscoll suffered a dead leg and bruised elbow in a crunching tackle by Jamie Noon in the win over England.

But he said his absence from Saturday's charity game was "just a precaution".

Ireland are also upbeat about Gordon D'Arcy's chances of facing France and the centre is included in the 33-man training squad for the Dublin clash.

Sir Clive Woodward, coach to the Northern Hemisphere team, had named O'Driscoll as his skipper for the Twickenham clash.

But the former England supremo revealed: "I promised Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan that if there was any doubt about Brian I would leave him out."

O'Driscoll added: "I'm disappointed - I really wanted to play in this big game for such a worthwhile cause.

"But I just have to be careful with more big games coming up. I need to do a full week's training next week."

The inspirational skipper is a crucial element of Ireland's Six Nations title challenge and has already missed one tournament outing - against Scotland - with a hamstring problem.

Ireland will find their midfield resources stretched should O'Driscoll fail to recover, with Shane Horgan ruled out with a thumb injury.

Ireland training squad - backs: Bowe, Campbell, D'Arcy, Duffy, A Horgan, Payne, Murphy, Dempsey, O'Driscoll, Hickie, O'Gara, Stringer, G Easterby, Humphreys, Maggs.

Forwards: S Best, Jackman, Quinlan, Leamy, Wallace, McCullough, Foley, O'Connor, S Easterby, O'Connell, O'Kelly, Hayes, S Byrne, Corrigan, Sheahan, Horan, O'Callaghan, Miller.