Sexton out of Ireland’s Six Nations trip to France with hamstring injury

Ireland’s captain Johnny Sexton has been ruled out of Saturday’s Six Nations clash with France due to a hamstring strain. The head coach Andy Farrell was expected to name an unchanged starting XV for the visit to Paris before influential fly-half Sexton sustained the injury in training.

Farrell does not expect Sexton to miss the rest of the championship and said the player could be fit to feature in the round-three fixture at home to Italy on 27 February.

“It’s a small hamstring strain that is definitely going to keep him out for this weekend,” said Farrell. “We don’t envisage it being difficult at all really. He might be a week to 10 days, something like that. But what we don’t want to do is to risk anything and make that worse and take him out of the competition completely. We expect him to be back pretty soon.”

Munster’s Joey Carbery will deputise in the No 10 jersey, while Connacht’s Jack Carty will serve as back up at Stade de France. Leinster lock James Ryan will skipper the side in Sexton’s absence.

British and Irish Lions Iain Henderson and Robbie Henshaw return to the Irish bench following injuries in the only other changes from last weekend’s bonus-point win over Wales in Dublin. Leinster second-row Ryan Baird and Ulster centre James Hume drop out of the matchday squad.

Carbery impressed as understudy in the autumn after Sexton was injured in the 29-20 win over New Zealand. The 26-year-old – who suffered a fractured elbow in December – came off the bench to kick three crucial penalties against the All Blacks, before producing a man-of-the-match performance against Argentina a week later.

Ulster captain Henderson and Leinster centre Henshaw have each been restricted to limited game time this season. Lock