Injury To Keep Cronin Out For Ten Weeks

The injury will see Sean Cronin miss Ireland’s entire RBS 6 Nations campaign, with Stuart Lancaster explaining at Leinster HQ: It’s quite a significant hamstring injury. It’s a real shame for him as he’s actually playing great rugby, but it’s a good opportunity for us to get him right and make sure we don’t get a recurrence of this because it must be hugely frustrating for him.

“He’s got himself into great form and now he’ll miss the Six Nations. (Against Zebre) he went to push off and accelerate around the corner and saw it go. He’s deeply disappointed but he’ll be back a better player.”

Following last Friday’s game against Montpellier at the RDS, Lancaster confirmed that Rob Kearney had come through the game with no ill-effects after his ankle injury and would train as normal this week.

Jonathan Sexton, who was removed in the first half for a head injury assessment, passed his HIA1 and returned to the pitch. While Leo Cullen said post-match that the issue was a neck injury, Lancaster further confirmed that Sexton has since passed both HIA2 and HIA3 as per the protocols and will be available for selection as the province prepare to play Castres Olympique away on Friday (kick-off 8.45pm local time/7.45pm Irish time).

Isa Nacewa was withdrawn at the start of the second half against Montpellier with a dead leg and will be assessed further as the week progresses, while Robbie Henshaw was also removed as a precaution as he felt tightness in his thigh.

Lancaster added that Sean O’Brien missed out on selection last week with a minor calf injury and was not risked and would again be assessed this week, but was more of a concern than Nacewa and Henshaw.

“We’re not worried about Isa or Robbie, they were more bangs. Seanie’s is a bit more residue from last week’s pull which hasn’t really settled down so he’s more of a concern for this week.

“Obviously (we’ll) make a decision later in the week but having said that, Jack Conan, Jamie Heaslip and Josh van der Flier didn’t do too badly (against Montpellier) and Dan Leavy is a pretty good bench option for us.”

There was good news on the injury front as Fergus McFadden and Mike Ross will again step up their recovery this week and took part again today in the on-field session. Similarly, both Joey Carbery and Dave Kearney took a limited part in the on-field session as they step up their recovery.

After the round 5 matches at the weekend, Leinster are top of Pool 4 and have already booked their place in the last-eight of the Champions Cup. A win against Castres would secure a home quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium on the weekend of March 31-April 1/2.