With Fraser Brown not in full training after a knee problem and George Turner injured, uncapped trio Dave Cherry, Jake Kerr and Grant Stewart are cover.

But Edinburgh captain McInally says all three are "quality players".

"All these guys could step in, no problem. All three are desperate to learn in training," McInally said.

"I work with David at Edinburgh and he's an excellent player - very good at set-pieces.

"Jake, from what I've seen over these last two weeks, is very capable of playing at this level, a good operator, very skilful. He's quite physical as well. He works really hard.

"Grant has been around the Scotland set-up before and he's played well for Glasgow."

Gregor Townsend has a long injury list to contend with, with key men missing from the back-row as well as the front-row.

But the head coach has spoken of "much better depth" and full-back Stuart Hogg says the squad are on the "right path to achieving something incredibly special".

McInally, 28, shares that positive outlook but is warning that Scotland cannot afford to look beyond Italy at Murrayfield.

"It's exciting that we get to start the championship at home," he said. "But we're not taking it lightly - we know we'll need to be at our best.

"There's no chance of minds wandering to the Ireland game. It's all on this game because if we don't get this right we don't stand a chance for the rest of the tournament."