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Sean O’Brien ruled out for remainder of 6 Nations, Sexton ‘rolls ankle’ in training

Joe Schmidt also says that lock Mike McCarthy is unlikely to play again this season having seen a specialist after his concussion.

IRELAND OUT-HALF Jonathan Sexton suffered a fresh injury today when he ‘rolled his ankle’, but Ireland will be without Sean O’Brien, Mike McCarthy and Dave Kearney for the rest of the tournament.

The number 10 suffered whiplash against France after complaining of a neck and shoulder problem in the previous week’s draw against Wales. Head coach Joe Schmidt reports that he has fully loosened up from that issue.

However, after getting fully kitted out to train among Ireland’s under 20 squad in Mullingar today, Sexton hobbled out early as a precaution.

“He just rolled his ankle,” Schmidt said once inside Mullingar RFC, “he could have trained on, but we sent him to the side.

“He rolled it, then did all the individual stuff in the unit split, but in the end most of what we were going to do is broken play work, so we didn’t really need him in there and we had 18 players from the 20s.

Johnny will be fit to play on Monday. The problem with rolling your ankle is if you do train on it you just get more inflammation. The sooner you stop the inflammation, in 48 hours you’re up and running.

“I wouldn’t be concerned at all. The medics came and said to me ‘do you want him to carry on?’ I said ‘no, leave him out.’”

Sexton’s ankle is the freshest, but not the most serious injury from an Ireland squad reduced to 15 as players head to their province for Pro12 duty.

Schmidt confirmed that O’Brien’s hamstring injury would keep him out for the remainder of the Six Nations along with Kearney (shoulder).

Second row Mike McCarthy is unlikely to be seen against this season after suffering concussion in Paris.

Mike McCarthy down injured Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“(McCarthy) has seen a specialist now and he is going to effectively recondition himself, freshen himself up and to kick-start next season now.

“That’s the latest word, maybe not the definitive word, but I think for him it’s an opportunity to freshen himself up a bit and that will give him a good entry point to next season.”


The42 Six Nations Show / SoundCloud

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