Ireland Receive Massive Injury Boost Ahead Of RBS Six Nations Opener

Joe Schmidt has declared Johnny Sexton fully fit to start Ireland’s Six Nations campaign after the fly-half suffered a concussion scare.

Sexton was withdrawn from Leinster’s 51-10 Champions Cup defeat to Wasps at the weekend but passed an initial pitch-side assessment and has since completed further tests to return to training.

Johnny trained really well yesterday, he’s fully fit and ready to go,” the Ireland head coach said.

All we can do is go on the medical opinion, and he had two of the best guys that are around. When they give him the all-clear we’ve got a lot of trust in them.

Schmidt took the opportunity to rule himself out as a contender for the Lions visit to New Zealand in 2017 because he said his current contract does not allow him to take the year-long sabbatical needed to prepare for the tour.