LEINSTER HEAD COACH Leo Cullen says there will be a much clearer picture of Jonathan Sexton’s fitness next week.
The Ireland out-half is undergoing rehab on his hamstring injuries in the Santry Sports Clinic, leaving Leinster with Joey Carbery and Ross Byrne as their out-halves for the Champions Cup trip to Northampton.
Cullen moved to “hold off judgement” on whether Sexton would be fit to face the Saints for the return match at Aviva Stadium, but was hopeful that the news from the northside would put the 31-year-old in line for a return in either the inter-provincial clash away to Munster (December 26) or at home to Ulster (December 31).
“Johnny is making good progress,” Cullen said after naming his team to face Northampton.
“We’ve a few players injured at the moment that we’re continuing to monitor. Johnny’s done a good week out in Santry, we’ll see how he finishes out the week, very similar (update) to last week.
“At the end we’ll make some assessments once this week finishes and make a plan for the weeks ahead.”
“It’s only one more game this side of Christmas… if it’s not next week, we’d be hopeful he’ll play one of those – I think we’ve three games in 11 days (including Zebre in early January). We’ll see, I’ll have a more accurate assessment next week.”
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