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Ireland call up uncapped Finlay Bealham for injured prop Marty Moore

Ireland's Marty Moore during a training session at Carton House, Dublin.
Image: Marty Moore (right) could miss the whole of the Six Nations

Marty Moore could miss the whole of Ireland's Six Nations campaign and will be replaced in the squad by uncapped Connacht prop Finlay Bealham.

Moore, who will join Wasps from Leinster next season, tore his hamstring during Leinster's European Champions Cup clash against his future employers on Sunday and is expected to be on the sidelines for between six and eight weeks.

Bealham was born in Australia but qualifies for Ireland through his grandmother, who hails from Enniskillen.

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The 24-year-old, who has played for the Ireland U20s and Emerging Ireland, has played in all of Leinster's 18 games so far this season, including six appearances in the European Challenge Cup.

Fly-half Jonathan Sexton, who was injured in the same Leinster's 51-10 defeat to Wasps, has to go through the return to play protocols after coming off with a head injury during the early stages at the Ricoh Arena.

The 30-year-old missed Ireland's Six Nations opener against Italy last year after being stood down from all rugby for 12 weeks after a series of concussions in a short space of time.

But a positive medical update on the official Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) website said Sexton "has passed both head injury assessment (HIA) 1 and 2 and will complete HIA 3 tomorrow [Tuesday]."

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Ireland's fly half Jonathan Sexton kicks a penalty  during a Pool D match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup between Ireland and Italy at the Olympic Stadium
Image: Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton is progressing well after a head injury

The IRFU also confirmed centre Robbie Henshaw suffered no ill-effects after making a try-scoring return for Connacht in their 47-5 European Challenge Cup victory over Enisei-STM on Saturday.

Henshaw had not featured since suffering a broken hand in November, but could now feature in Ireland's Six Nations opener against Wales in Dublin on February 7, where they will begin the defence of their crown.

Joe Schmidt's side then face France, England and Italy before finishing at home to Scotland on March 19.

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