Jonathan Sexton has put to bed any lingering doubts about his fitness by declaring himself “100% fit” ahead of Ireland’s historic meeting with New Zealand in Chicago next week, reports Brendan O’Brien of the Irish Examiner.
The Leinster out-half has been dealing with a low grade hamstring injury in recent weeks and lasted just forty minutes of the province’s Champions Cup game in Montpellier last Sunday before Joey Carbery was sent on his stead after the break.
Leinster coach Leo Cullen admitted that Sexton – as well as Sean O’Brien who was also kept on the sideline after the interval on his return from a long-term injury – had been “pissed off” at being substituted so early but Sexton is adamant that he is good to go for the Windy City.
[timg]onathanSextonKicksIrelandFeb16_large.jpg/timg]“The week before I had torn my hamstring, very minor, but in a place that would have been quite risky and other guys have had trouble with it,” Sexton said on Tuesday morning at a promotional event for Aer Lingus.
“So I was in a race against time to get training time with the lads.
“So to get fit for the (Montpellier) game was a bonus but I knew my time would be restricted and then Leo made the call for half-time, I would have liked to have gone on further but I knew that, yeah, it was their call.”
Such caution is understandable given the November test series around the corner and the fact that Sexton’s tear was high up on his leg. He has seen colleagues take up to 16 weeks to recover from it in the past.
He struggled on his return in France at the weekend.
His kicking from the hand was erratic but he claims it wasn’t fear of further damaging the hamstring that prompted him to leave the place-kicking duties to Isa Nacewa during the 22-16 loss at a rain-soaked Altrad Stadium.
Sexton explained that he was expecting to be taken off no later than the hour mark and that under those circumstances it made more sense for Nacewa to be handed the duties from the off.
“I was kicking in the warm-up as well, I was fit to kick. It was just for Isa and the team and thankfully it was the right decision because he had to nail some important kicks and that one at the end (to earn a losing bonus point) – if he was taking that as his first kick it could have been a more tricky goal.”
