Sexton set for Six Nations kick-off

January 22, 2020 4:01 pm client

Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Johnny Sexton expects to be available for selection for Ireland’s opening Guinness Six Nations Championship game against Scotland at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, 1 February.

The Ireland captain suffered a knee injury in Leinster Rugby’s win over Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens on 7 December and has been out of action since

“Everything’s been going to plan so hopefully I’ll take a full part in training tomorrow,” Sexton told the media at the Six Nations launch in London.

“Once I don’t have any setbacks, everything’s gone really well so far, everything’s gone to plan and if anything, I’m a little bit ahead of schedule. Once everything goes smoothly over the next few days, I should be fine and available for selection.”

Sexton also spoke about being chosen as Ireland captain by head coach Andy Farrell for the Six Nations campaign.

“I think everyone would want to be captain but it’s about someone wanting you to do it and that’s the biggest honour you can be asked to do.

“It meant a lot that Andy asked me to do it, that he thought that I was the one to lead us forward into this campaign.

“It’s obviously a campaign-by-campaign thing at the moment and we’ll see how we go and see how everything goes over the next eight weeks.”

There were also updates on Rónan Kelleher and Jordan Larmour from Farrell, with a Leinster injury update on Monday confirming that Larmour had picked up a low-grade foot injury in Saturday’s win over Benetton Rugby.

“He’s still nursing an injury,” said Farrell of Larmour.

“We’ve had a few days off, so nothing too taxing. We met up yesterday and had a bit of a walkthrough, so he was able to partake in that but we will have to take it day-by-day.

“I don’t think it’s anything too serious but how that plays out in the next few days, we’ll see.”