Joe Schmidt's unwritten rule that starting players need to be involved in training from earlier in the week may have an exemption, or two, in this week of all weeks. That exemption would ordinarily apply to Johnny Sexton in any case, and although he's a long shot to recover from an adductor strain in his right leg, it certainly will in World Cup quarter-final week, all the more so in light of losing Paul O'Connell, Peter O'Mahony and, as of tonight, Sean O'Brien.

The Irish flanker received a two week suspension, reduced to one week on account of his good disciplinary record, after a lengthy hearing in London yesterday, to thus rule him out of Sunday’s quarter-final against Argentina after he had been cited for striking Pascal Pape in the first minute of Ireland’s win over France.

After a hearing which began at 1pm and, after some intervals, finished after 8pm, the independent Judicial Officer Terry Willis, from Australia, did not concur with persistent claims from the French, and Pape himself, that O'Brien's act had been, as their coach Philippe Saint-André, a vicious act.

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Pape’s claims that he had played on in pain would have been countered by O’Brien and his legal representative on the premise that he was involved in over 40 impacts, be they carries, tackles or hitting rucks. O’Brien was represented by the English solicitor Max Duthie, who has been a citing officer for ERC and accompanied the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia, and was accompanied by team manager Mick Kearney. But in any event, an aggressive French case has clearly contributed to O’Brien being suspended for a World Cup quarter-final.

As for Sexton, the Irish management will give him as long as possible to prove his fitness. “Johnny has a slight adductor (groin) strain, and there has been some improvement,” said assistant coach Les Kiss. “Hopefully we’ll see a little bit more tomorrow and that will give us a clearer picture. At this stage it’s one of those things where you’re hoping you see initial improvement and then more improvement the next day. That’s where we’re sitting at the moment, we’ll have to wait and see.”

“Each day will give us some more information,” added Kiss, declining to put Sexton’s chances of facing the Pumas in percentage terms. “It’s a good question because that’s the one we’ll face. Where that medical information comes back to us, what information Johnny gives us, that’ll give us the clues to it.”

“Knock-out maybe changes the shape of your thinking perhaps, but we have to be pragmatic about what works. It will probably come down to the last minute when we make that decision.”

If Sexton doesn’t play, Ian Madigan’s assured all-round display against France brooks no argument as to who will start at outhalf. “Personally, I wouldn’t have been fearful anyway,” said Kiss of such a prospect. “I think we’ve got a lot of faith in what Ian can do for us and he proved that. He trusted his instincts in that game against France and caused them a whole heap of trouble.

“He slotted in seamlessly really. He’s armed. He’s ready. If it has to be the case he’ll step forward, but we do need to see where we go each day on this one and I guess the real plus is that we can give ourselves that time based on the fact that the team have been working well together for the last eight, nine, ten weeks, whatever it is.

“In every part of the game, Mads is bolted on, he knows where he is. It’s nice to know that but, as I said, we’ll take each moment, each medical report as it comes and we’ll see where we are.”

The likelihood is that Donnacha Ryan will come into the second-row alongside Devin Toner, with Iain Henderson switching to blindside flanker alongside Jamie Heaslip and Chris Henry in the back row.

At least one of this week's two call-ups, Mike McCarthy (whose preference to Dan Tuohy is essentially a form issue) and Rhys Ruddock, will find themselves elevated to the bench. The Irish management will not call up a replacement for their other stricken player, Jared Payne, until next week.

“We can wait for the game and see what happens in the game. If you look at the mix in terms of what we have in our backline at the moment, we’ve got coverage right across the park. We’ve exposed players in the midfield, we’ve got coverage in the nines, we’ve got heaps of back three cover. At this stage it wasn’t an area where we felt we just had to rush in to a decision. We’re just going to sit on that and see where we go. We’ve got a fair bit on our plate at the moment as you can imagine.”

The Ireland-Argentina quarter-final will be refereed by Jerome Garcès of France with his countryman, Romain Poite, and New Zealand’s Chris Pollock as assistant referees. George Ayoub (Australia) will be the TMO.

World Rugby Verdict

Seán O’Brien (Ireland) has been suspended for one week for striking contrary to Law 10.4(a).

Following a review of available camera angles, O'Brien was cited by independent Citing Commissioner Dougie Hunter (Scotland) under Law 10.4(a) for striking with the hand, arm or fist during the Rugby World Cup 2015 Pool D match against France at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on 11 October.

O’Brien admitted committing an act of foul play and therefore the independent Judicial Officer Terry Willis (Australia) upheld the citing on the basis that the player had committed an act of foul play contrary to Law 10.4(a).

Willis conducted a detailed review of all the available evidence, including all camera angles and additional evidence from the player and submissions from his legal representative.

With respect to the sanction, the Judicial Officer deemed the act of foul play merited a low-end entry point of two weeks. The Judicial Officer considered that there were no aggravating factors. The Judicial Officer took into account compelling mitigating factors including O’Brien’s conduct prior to and at the hearing, his remorse, good character and clean disciplinary record, and reduced the suspension to a period of one week.

In the context of the Rugby World Cup tournament a week equates to one match. The suspension takes effect immediately, therefore O'Brien is suspended for Ireland's quarter-final match against Argentina on Sunday, 18 October, 2015. He is free to resume playing on 19 October, 2015.