The Irishman, however, has an obligation to Racing Metro, the Parisian club which pays him very well and, understandably, demands some recompense. So, while head coach Schmidt was gathering the core of his Test squad in Galway last week, Sexton was back in the French capital preparing for Saturday night’s home league fixture against a powerhouse Clermont outfit.

That did not sit easily with Schmidt — in Cork on Saturday — but there was nothing he could do about it and Sexton did need the game time, having clocked up 70 minutes against the French in his first game since being given the all clear to return to action. Yet, that his playmaker would get through some further mileage and minutes over the weekend in only his fifth league appearance of the season for Racing, without reopening the still healing wound, was the best and only scenario the Ireland boss would have cared to contemplate.

Fortunately, for Schmidt and Ireland, he got just that in an outing that saw Sexton, his head sporting a protective bandage, time out on his first kick at goal, then succeed with two penalties and the conversion of a Marc Andreu try for which he had supplied the assist. He had left the field with his team 13-6 up, but it was not enough for Racing to win the game, Clermont finishing stronger with a disputed 72nd minute try from substitute wing Noa Nakaitaci, converted by Brock James, who missed a last-gasp penalty that would have handed the visitors victory.

Not that any of that mattered to Irish hearts, except for Racing assistant coach Ronan O’Gara. The important thing was Sexton had come through unscathed to be delivered safely back to the Ireland camp ahead of the big match, although he was slow to get up off the ground following a choke tackle that left him with a nose bleed in the 59th minute, later dismissed by the out-half as “just blood, nothing more than that”.

“It was a slow enough game, the pitch wasn’t great and it was a tough, tough slog,” Sexton said. “It was physical. Clermont are a very, very good team and, for me, probably the best team in France, so it was good to get another almost 70 minutes.

“It would have been nice to stay on and play more, but at the same time I was happy to get off uninjured and ready to go for another big one next week.

“I was only unable to train for three or four weeks when I wasn’t feeling great [during his 12-week standing-down] and then I had a lot of time to keep sharp. But there’s nothing that replicates playing matches and getting used to the feeling again, even just having to take a kick after taking a couple of hard knocks, when you’re struggling to get off the ground and you have to take a kick straight away. So, the more games, I play the better I’ll feel.

“I felt a bit rusty at times last week, I felt the pace at times and, hopefully, the time tonight will do me good.”

That game time, however valuable, was not without incident, nor nervous moments, despite Sexton for the most part staying out of trouble. His first shot at goal saw the one-minute countdown clock, an unique Top 14 institution, beat the fly-half, his preparations disrupted by lingering Clermont players standing five metres in front of him and ref Romain Poite doing little to move them out of Sexton’s line of sight.

Regardless, the late kick struck an upright and it was not until just before the half hour that the Irishman opened his account with a penalty from left of the posts that was successfully taken with 18 seconds to spare. With ball in hand, Sexton was as lively as the game and its referee would permit, mixing attack well with a long skip pass out wide here, a wraparound there, and spiky confrontation with Clermont No.8 Fritz Lee that thankfully never came to blows.

For all Sexton’s prompting, though, his team-mates did not seem able to meet the challenge, save for Andreu’s 56th-minute swoop onto his crossfield kick, as the bounce eluded last defender Zac Guildford, and Clermont’s late score was the least they merited.

“It wasn’t a free-flowing game,” a frustrated Sexton said. “At times we were going backwards, we weren’t getting any dominance at the set-piece, any scrum was ending up in penalties for us or for them. We were struggling at lineout time a bit in terms even when we were winning the ball so, look, it was difficult to get into our game.

“We lacked a bit at ruck time, they’re a good team at the ruck and they slowed our ball down and we struggled a bit. We came away with a draw, although I’m not sure we deserved to. We got a lucky enough try but we need to improve a lot going into the knockout stages of the Champions Cup and to get into, hopefully, the top two or four in France.”

Sexton is eagerly looking forward to an improvement in conditions and performance when Ireland face England.

“That was a tough game and hopefully it will be a better standard next week in the Aviva. It’s a different game and even a small thing like the standard of pitch already makes it better. It was tough going out there tonight, there was mud, it was wet and a heavy pitch, but I was happy to contribute, and it was an important result for us.”

Importantly, too, the eye wound, was undisturbed.

“We had it strapped up well,” Sexton said, before admitting, “probably a bit too tight in the warm-up, I struggled a bit with it then. I had a pain in my head from the strapping being so tight, so I had to get it taken off and I went out without the padding on it. It was fine, I didn’t get a direct hit on it and hopefully eight more days will give it a chance to heal.”