The Morning Sports Briefing

Gordon D’Arcy on the impressive Adam Byrne

We start with rugby this morning and Gordon D'Arcy writes in his column that Ireland have serious strength-in-depth in the wing department, shown by the absence of Adam Byrne in Joe Schmidt's 40-man Six Nations squad.

Byrne has been particularly impressive for Leinster recently but the 22-year-old will have to bide his time before pulling on an Ireland jersey.

“Adam’s time will come and, should all the stars align, Will Greenwood might prove correct; he could follow the Keith Earls trajectory from 2009 when Earls’ Munster form saw him tour South Africa with the Lions,” D’Arcy writes.

Prospects of shortened GAA championship season increase

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British No1 Johanna Konta exits at hands of Serena Williams

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Is this the age of the golden oldie in sport?

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Rory McIlroy expects to return to action at the beginning of March

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Shortened championship season looking likely

On to GAA and the prospects of a shortened championship season have increased after the announcement yesterday that the raft of motions set to go to congress next month will be dealt with separately.

The proposals of a round-robin group stage, the season ending in August and matches going to extra-time will be taken as three separate votes.

Stats show black cards are working

Meanwhile, GAA director-general Páraic Duffy has defended black cards, pointing to the statistical evidence that it has been a success in football.

Serena joins Venus in semi-finals

In tennis the revival of the over-30s continued in Melbourne this morning as Serena Williams saw off British No1 Johanna Konta to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open. She will now take on 34-year-old Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

McIlroy out until March

In golf, Rory McIlroy last night announced that he plans to return to tournament play at the WGC Mexico Championship in the first week of March, and not at the Arnold Palmer Invitational the week before, as was previously suggested.

McIlroy’s rib stress fracture has forced him out of the game for the foreseeable future and will shorten his build-up to the US Masters in April.

Liverpool hoping for a glimmer of light

Finally to soccer and Liverpool take on Southampton in their EFL Cup semi-final second leg this evening as they look to bounce back from a 1-0 first leg defeat and end their current poor run.

What to watch out for

Tennis

Eurosport, midnight-3.30pm: Quarter-finals Australian Open

Soccer

Sky Sports 1 from 7.30pm: (8.00) Cup: Liverpool v Southampton