The nation awaits a green light from Paris
Johnny Sexton will return to Paris on Wednesday ahead of an appointment, the following morning, with a French neurologist. The Ireland out-half will sit out his team’s Six Nations opener but is hopeful he can resume full contact training by next Monday.
Sexton has been out of action since sustaining concussion, against Australia, on November 22. French Top 14 sides now sideline all players for 12 weeks if they have sustained three concussions in the space of 12 months. Sexton’s concussion against the Wallabies was his third in eight months.
Ireland team manager Mick Kearney says, ‘Johnny has been in camp all last week, he’s trained really well, very focused, taking a full part except for the full contact. So he’ll see his neurologist on Thursday. Hopefully he’ll get a clean bill of health and it will be all systems go for the following week.’
Kearney is often the bearer of bad injury news but his casualty update was thankfully brief this afternoon. Conor Murray took some light contact near the tail-end of last week and management expect him to feature against Italy. Luke Fitzgerald [stomach ailment], Eoin Reddan [knee], Dave Kearney [shoulder] and Mike McCarthy [concussion] remain in the selection mix.
Cian Healy is definitely out of the Italy game, as is Fergus McFadden, but oth could return for France. Regarding Healy, Kearney comments, ‘He’s undergoing a test this moment and if he comes through that test he will be allowed to train fully for the rest of the week… [and] if that happens with Cian, given the athlete that he is, I would expect that he would be in consideration for the French game.’
There is however, a small doubt, over Jamie Heaslip and his smarting shoulder. The Leinster captain should be fit to start in Rome, otherwise Ireland would have kept Jack Conan in camp as a likely back-up for Jordi Murphy. As it stands, if Heaslip trains fully on Tuesday, he will allay any fears of missing the tournament opener.
