Joe Schmidt: Johnny Sexton is fully fit for Six Nations campaign

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt confirmed that Jonathan Sexton has no lingering concussion issues according to medical opinion arising from the knock he took to the head in last weekend's Champions Cup match against Wasps.

Sexton was removed early on following a clash of heads with former teammate and Wasps centre Brendan Macken but has subsequently passed all three Head Injury Assessments (HIAs) and he trained without any issues at Carton House on Monday.

It leaves him in pole position to play against Wales in the opening Six Nations Championship match at the Aviva stadium on Sunday week. Schmidt, speaking at the Six Nations launch at the Hurlingham club in London, explained: "Johnny trained really well on Monday. He's fully fit and ready to go.

“He’s done HIA 1, 2 and 3, and passed all three. That’s the protocol. It was this time last year that the problem really arose and he had the break. Since that time he hasn’t really had too many problems. He’s had a few injuries, not head injuries at all. As far as we are concerned and as far as Johnny is concerned he is very keen to be ready to go in 11 days time.

When asked about whether he was concerned about another head knock sustained by his outhalf the Ireland coach responded: “I am always concerned. We try and treat head injury with the respect it needs to be treated with; that’s why he didn’t go back on the pitch in London at the weekend. I certainly got a fair bit of respect for that decision.

“All we can do is go on the best medical opinion and he had two of the best guys that are around make some decisions for him last year and have followed up since then. When they give him the all clear then we have a lot of trust in them.

“Unfortunately I have a lot of dealings with medical practitioners that we have huge trust in and you know they are the experts. If there are people that question that, then it is always a disappointment but it is also a reality.

“No one is going to have the same opinion, necessarily but what you try to do is get those who are best qualified to make the best opinion and therefore not put someone at risk.”

Schmidt confirmed that he had spoken to a number of the young players both inside and outside the Ireland squad. “I think that young players were given a really good chance (in club rugby) because it (the Six Nations) is not the place to blood young players necessarily at the very height of Europe.

“They filter in through the Pro12, into Europe and then into the test arena would be the normal way it happens. Sometimes people vault one of those qualification areas.

"I have spoken to a number of them, some inside the squad, the likes of Ultan Dillane. At the same time I have spoken to ones that aren't, the likes of Jack O'Donoghue who has had a really resilient and progressive season for Munster and Garry Ringrose who has had some impressive cameos and full performances for Leinster. At the same time you have a guy like Josh van der Flier who has really come into the frame this year and really impressed."

Schmidt reiterated the sentiments, with a little humour thrown in, expressed by the IRFU’s David Nucifora about a preference for players based in Ireland as opposed to those going abroad when asked about Ian Madigan, Marty Moore and the prospect of others like Keith Earls and Simon Zebo also leaving Ireland.

“Look there’s only Ian Madigan in the squad who has signed abroad. I’ve seen the word exodus used a number of times and having read the book by Leon Uris - along with a number of other Leon Uris titles - it defies the dictionary definition of exodus.

“But I would say it is a concern because we lose the opportunity to manage that player with the regulation nine windows, we don’t have the same access to that player.

“And it’s just a little bit more difficult to monitor that player. We can get the training volume from around the provinces; we know what their S & C programme is, what their total training time minutes are, so we know the volume of what they’re doing away from the pitch.

"We can measure the match time the players have had. Obviously the only experience that I've had with it was with Johnny Sexton and he came into his first camp having played 12 games in 11 weeks; is that the best preparation to be fully fit to play an international?

“That’s the risk for us. So I’d hope that some of the rumours aren’t as well-founded as people believe, but that’s again external at he moment because once we’re actually in camp it’s about what we can try to get done.”