Johnny Sexton Leinster Rugby Ireland county Ulster Six Nations Sport Rugby on Johnny Sexton Leinster Rugby Ireland county Ulster

Johnny Sexton 'looking lively' on return to Leinster training

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Johnny Sexton took part in Leinster training on Monday as he stepped up his comeback following facial surgery.The Ireland captain joined his provincial team-mates as they prepared for Saturday's Heineken Champions Cup tie against Racing 92 at the Aviva Stadium, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.The Racing game will come too soon for Sexton, who sustained a cheekbone injury during Leinster's derby win over Connacht on New Year’s Day, but attack coach Andrew Goodman is pleased with how the 37-year-old is progressing."It’s great to have him back out there," said Goodman. "He always brings a great energy and edge to everything we do on the training pitch."He was looking lively out there.

Great to start his progression back."Leinster’s final game before the start of the Six Nations is against Cardiff in the BKT United Rugby Championship on 28 January, but Goodman is unsure whether Sexton would feature, given Ireland face Wales seven days later."It just depends on the relationship between Ireland and Leinster and what they’ve got planned in terms of their camps moving forward," he said."That’ll be the big deciding factor around that, and just making sure he’s healed 100%.

It’s great to have him back but it was non-contact training so there’s still a lot to get through before he’s available to play."It was an untimely [injury] for him.

He was keen to get a string of games. As you can imagine he’s just champing at the bit to get out and get some action on the field."Tadhg Furlong also took a limited part in Leinster training on Monday.

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