Beating France has taken a heavy, heavy, heavy toll.
The worst fears of Irish rugby fans were realised on Saturday afternoon with the news that Johnny Sexton would miss the World Cup quarter final against Argentina.
In the space of seven days, Ireland have lost five of their starting XV. Sexton joins Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony and Jared Payne on the ‘injured’ list while Sean O’Brien is suspended for Sunday’s match.
The hope many fans clung to was that Sexton and O’Brien would return for a possible semi-final with either Australia or Scotland.
However, the update on Sexton is worryingly unclear.
At today’s press briefing in The Hilton Hotel, Cardiff, assistant Ireland coach Simon Easterby filled us in.
“Johnny trained fully yesterday and he had a bit of tightness in there.
“He was sent for a scan and that showed the strain. The good thing is that guys have run in and out all week, in all positions.
“He did everything he could; he trained yesterday. It’s one of those things in his position, having to kick the ball so often and be quite accurate, it just meant that he wasn’t quite right. We weren’t prepared to take that risk going into such a big game.”
Asked if Sexton’s World Cup is in danger of a premature end, Easterby replied:
“I don’t know, I couldn’t answer that right now.
“I think the most important thing is we get through this week and that’s our only focus.
“Beyond Sunday, we haven’t looked that far and that’s been our focus throughout the competition.”
