Updated at 22.00
JOHNNY SEXTON WAS absent from Racing Métro’s squad last weekend as they were beaten 21-16 in Oyonnax.
The Ireland out-half missed out after failing to recover from a thigh injury sustained in the Top 14 clash with Montpellier on 11 April, when Sexton kicked two conversions in a 24-24 draw.
Sexton, who will re-join Leinster this summer, also took a separate knock in Racing’s Champions Cup quarter-final defeat to Saracens on 5 May, after which the Irishman had to hand over the kicking duties to scrum-half Maxime Machenaud.
Racing say Sexton picked up the thigh injury in the game against Montpellier – when he played 58 minutes before being replaced by Johan Goosen – and “was not 100% fit to play” against Oyonnax last Saturday, two weeks after the Montpellier game.
Sexton did travel with the team to Stade Charles Mathon to take in the disappointing 21-16 loss that saw Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers’ team drop to fifth in the Top 14 table with games against Stade Français [H], La Rochelle [A] and Castres [H] remaining in the regular season.
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt will have been in close contact with Racing throughout Sexton’s recovery from the thigh injury, given the importance of the playmaker to Ireland’s World Cup hopes later this year.
Sexton missed 12 weeks of the current season as he recovered from the effects of four concussions in the space of a year, while he also had a hamstring issue midway through this year’s Six Nations success.
Racing fans will hope to see their star out-half back in the number 10 shirt for the derby clash with Stade Français in Stade Yves du Manoir on Sunday, 10 May. Sexton is on holidays this week and will appear on RTÉ’s Second Captains Live tomorrow night [RTÉ 2 at 10pm].
Racing’s defeat to Oyonnax ended in dramatic circumstance after Machenaud thought he had scored an equalising try in injury time. His effort, which can be seen below, was ruled out by the referee and TMO for a holding offence off the ball by Thibault Dubarry.
Forwards coach Travers was pictured heading into the match official’s changing room after the game for a discussion on that decision and others.
