Paul O'Connell says he doesn't doubt Johnny Sexton's ability to quickly find his form at the Rugby World Cup, but admits the Ireland captain will be feeling the pressure to hit the ground running.
Sexton will miss Ireland's upcoming Rugby World Cup warm-up games due to the three-match suspension he picked up in the fallout from Leinster's Champions Cup final defeat to La Rochelle, which means he will head into the tournament having not played in close to six months following a groin injury.
"I'd say it's a worry for him, you know. He wants to finish playing really, really well, and I'd say he'd love to have a few more games under his belt," the Ireland forwards coach says.
However, O'Connell says that he has full confidence in the 38-year-old to avoid rust at the tournament in September.
"It's a big strength of his because he's had to do it so often. He is very good at being able to come back from injury and hit the ground running.
"Out-half, you need to be fit but it's maybe not the work rate position that a back three or maybe even some of the forwards is. You can come in and hit the ground running pretty well and he's been really good at that. Whenever he's come back from injuries, he rarely needs a lot of games to get back up and running. It's a real strength of his.
"He's trained since the start of preseason pretty much, he hasn't missed a training session and the way we've trained, a lot of it has been has been rugby. For sure, you're missing a bit of the heavier contact part to that week to week. We've no choice with that. We have to manage them and keep them injury free, so that'll be the final piece of the jigsaw for him.
"I would say coming closer to the end of August there will probably be a bit of heavier contact put it into his work in training. I think the way we train suits the scenario he's in. I think it's a strength of his to be able to come back as well having been out."
Ireland begin their programme of warm-up games on Saturday when they take on Italy at the Aviva Stadium (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), with further meetings to come against England (19 August) and Samoa (26 August) before they announce their final 33-man squad.
With Sexton unavailable, Ross Byrne, Jack Crowley and Ciarán Frawley will be looking to share time in the out-half shirt in the coming weeks.
"It puts us in a good position heading into the World Cup, because those guys get to accumulate more experience; not just of playing on the big day, but of owning it and running the week; driving some of the detail as well.
"Johnny's suspension is unfortunate for us, but there's a real good silver lining for us as well," O'Connell added.
Excluding Sexton, the Irish coaches have a squad of 41 players to work with over the coming weeks, with four of the group - Frawley, Calvin Nash, Jamie Osborne and Tom Stewart - looking to win their first caps.
O'Connell (below) says the management team have made a rough sketch of how they'd like to line out across the next three games, and is hopeful that barring injury, all 41 players will get a chance to impress.
"I would imagine [they will all play], it depends what throws up now in the next few weeks.
"We start games this weekend, we'll have a big training week where we get a bit of heat stress in Portugal.
"There will be rough plans laid out.
"We just have to be adaptable and it's one of the things around being able to have players that can play in a few different positions has been quite important for us and that has been one of the good things about this rugby block, that it hasn't been solely fitness games or fitness training. We've been doing proper rugby, which allows guys to get up to date with a few different positions.
"I'm sure as the competition goes on and injuries will happen, that's a challenge we're going to have to deal with. We'd have a rough idea but we're aware that that will have to change week to week."
Watch live coverage of Ireland's Rugby World Cup warm-up games v Italy (5 August), England (19 August) and Samoa (26 August) live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 or follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app.
