Brian O'Driscoll: Rustiness won't be a worry for Sexton

Brian O'Driscoll says there's little evidence to suggest Johnny Sexton will suffer from rustiness when he makes his return this weekend.

The Ireland captain is expected to be involved in their Rugby World Cup opener against Romania in Bordeaux, having missed the warm-up games against Italy, England and Samoa due to suspension.

That suspension came as the out-half was recovering from a groin injury picked up in March, which means the Pool B meeting with Romania will come just shy of six months since his last competitive game.

"I always have been confident with Johnny," O'Driscoll said at an event for Guinness.

"One thing he's shown throughout his career is an ability to have a long enough stay way from the game and then hit the ground running at Six Nations or international level.

"Not many players are capable of doing that with no gametime, but he's certainly been one that's been able to do it and capable of doing it.

"There's always the added nervousness of the age profile of someone, being 38 years of age, and a long layoff, nearly six months without playing a high-octane international. They don't get more high-octane that World Cups. There will always be a nervousness around how his body reacts, not just the injury component, but we'll continue having nervousness as the competition goes on around his ability to stay on the field, because he's all-important."

Sexton is due to retire after the tournament, and O'Driscoll believes his teammate could feature in some capacity in every game of the pool stage.

"I imagine he'll start the first game[against Romania], maybe sit on the bench against Tonga then come on for 20 minutes if needs be and then we've got to start him in the biggest games in the pool, against South Africa and