LEINSTER HAVE CONFIRMED the worst fears over Johnny Sexton’s groin injury, with the province announcing that the 37-year-old is likely to miss the rest of this season.
This campaign is set to be Sexton’s last one with Leinster, with the out-half expected to retire from playing after captaining Ireland at the World Cup later this year.
Sexton had hoped to lead Leinster to a Champions Cup and URC double this season, with both finals potentially taking place in Dublin, but it now looks as though that ambition has been quashed.
The Leinster captain injured his groin as Ireland claimed the Grand Slam against England in Dublin two weekends ago and Leinster have now confirmed that the issue requires surgery.
“Johnny Sexton will see a specialist on Tuesday and have a procedure on the groin injury picked up in Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations game against England which will likely keep him sidelined for the remainder of the Leinster Rugby season,” reads a statement from Leinster this afternoon.
Sexton has won 189 caps for Leinster, having made his senior debut back in 2006. He has helped the province to four Heineken Champions Cup titles, a Challenge Cup, and six Pro12/Pro14/URC trophies.
Sexton will now be putting all his attention on recovering from the groin injury in time to have a strong pre-season with Ireland this summer ahead of the World Cup, which kicks off in September in France.
Leinster have lots of cover at out-half, with Ross Byrne, Harry Byrne, Ciarán Frawley, and academy duo Charlie Tector and Sam Prendergast all in the province, but the talismanic Sexton will obviously be missed.
Meanwhile, Leinster have announced that Garry Ringrose, Hugo Keenan, and Caelan Doris are all continuing the graduated return-to-play protocols this week having suffered head injuries while on Ireland duty.
Ringrose took a heavy blow to the head in Ireland’s win over Scotland three weekends ago, while Keenan and Doris were forced off during the win against England.
Leinster indicated that Ringrose, Doris, and Keenan will be further assessed this week before a decision is made on their availability for this weekend’s Champions Cup clash against Ulster.
As Leinster prepare for that round-of-16 game at the Aviva Stadium, they still have several other players on their longer-term injury list.
Jamie Osborne [knee], Charlie Ngatai [hamstring], Rónan Kelleher [shoulder], Joe McCarthy [ankle], Cormac Foley [hamstring], and Martin Moloney [knee] remain sidelined.
That’s incredible
@Jim Demps: the fast lane was left wide open for Wade to get through… You wouldn’t see a hole that big in regular season. Still though, great vision and speed to score. Big things await this guy.
@Peter Cavey: it certainly does have all the hall marks of a pre season game but to score on a 65 yarder on your first touch is pretty special.
Delighted for him. Took some set of balls to do this, hope it works out for him.
Delighted for tbe guy, took way too much flak on departure.
That’s the thing about American Football.. Runners usually don’t sidestep, jink or hand-off, just take the contact and set up again. Strange Sport. (Not saying that I could do any better.)
@Seamus Quinn: they do jink and sidestep
@Colm Connolly: and I’m pretty sure he didn’t sidestep or hand off anyone en route to scoring that TD either….
@Liam Flague: I’m not saying he did but the original comment said that running backs dont jink or sidestep which is clearly not true if you have ever watch even 1 game
@Colm Connolly: I know, but, y’know.. more.
@Seamus Quinn: You must be watching a different sport to the one I watch. Literally the best side steps and jinks in world sport are found in the NFL.
@Liam Flague: He certainly seems to send the first defender the wrong way with a shimmy just after he gets the ball. No-one’s expecting someone to get through that area with the ball in hand so after that yeah it’s a straight race and he doesn’t need to step anyone else.
@Seamus Quinn: no hand off cos the defender will rip your arm off if you try . Loads of jinks and steps by running backs though
@Limón Madrugada: Fair enough. Arms are kinda handy. Still think they’re in the habit of taking the hit instead of trying to beat the last man. Wade might try things a little differently..