Sexton back in reckoning for Ireland

Fly-half's recovery from thumb injury a lift for Six Nations title hopefuls

Johnny Sexton of Ireland is tackled by Richie Gray of Scotland during their Six Nations match at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on February 2, 2014. David Rogers / Getty Images

Johnny Sexton has overcome his thumb ligament problem in time to face Italy in the Six Nations in Dublin on Saturday.

The Racing Metro fly-half was named in coach Joe Schmidt’s Ireland starting line-up after passing a fitness test on Thursday.

The injury happened in Ireland’s loss to England last month and the initial prediction had been a spell on the sidelines of up to six weeks. Sexton has recovered quicker than expected, however, and Schmidt said that, following talks with Racing Metro and their coach Laurent Labit, he had no concern about picking Sexton for a match that Ireland cannot lose if they hope to win the Six Nations title.

“It was a sprained thumb, he finished the England game,” he said. “There was bruising and it’s gone.

“Racing have been pretty good value, they understand Johnny’s a pretty important shared resource.”

Meanwhile, Ulster’s Iain Henderson replaces Peter O’Mahony at blindside flanker to claim his ninth cap, in the only change to the squad that narrowly lost 13-10 against England at Twickenham.

Munster captain O’Mahony has battled hamstring trouble and Schmidt has opted not to risk him, with a potential title decider against France on March 15.

“If this was the last game of the Six Nations, we might have risked Peter,” Schmidt said. “But there was a risk. He didn’t train today and that was the difference. If he’d trained fully we would have included him, but he wasn’t able.”

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