Sheehan Wishes Atonio ‘All The Best’ After France Prop’s Enforced Retirement

The 35-year-old Atonio was sadly forced to retire from rugby last week, with his club La Rochelle saying that he suffered a suspected heart problem. Following his hospitalisation, he is in a stable condition now and will undergo a long period of recovery.

The giant tighthead’s presence will be missed by those on and off the pitch when the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations kicks off in Paris on Thursday night.

He first played against Ireland back in 2016 and wore the number 3 jersey for France’s last four meetings with Andy Farrell’s men. He also started seven times against Leinster in the Investec Champions Cup.

The last of those clashes was at the Aviva Stadium just over three weeks ago, when Leinster pipped La Rochelle 25-24 in a dramatic finish. Given Sheehan had played against him so recently, the news of the 2022 Grand Slam winner’s enforced retirement really hit home.

“It’s pretty tragic, it puts things into perspective,” said Sheehan. “Only three weeks ago we were playing against him, and to hear something like that that forces him into retirement, obviously we wish him all the best.

“He has been a top competitor for us, especially us Leinster lads, over the last couple of years. He’s always been the friendly character. You know, he’s probably the opposite of (Will) Skelton in some ways!

“He’s the one sort of chatting to you. He’d just be having normal conversations with you in scrums and stuff, and you’re just like, ‘What the heck?’.

“Or he’d come up to you after a game and it’s just as if he’d known you for years. So, he’s always been that sort of friendly character, but yeah, a seriously talented competitor at the same time.

“Sometimes I struggle to see how he’s able to just go from one personality to the other, but he’s been top quality for so many years. We wish him all the best. It definitely put things into perspective that, you know, rugby’s not the most important thing.”

The last time Ireland and France locked horns, last March’s incident-packed encounter in Dublin ended in a 42-27 victory for the French. A Sheehan try briefly had the hosts leading 13-8, early on in the second half, but Fabien Galthie’s side ended up scoring 34 unanswered points.

Injuries and retirements mean a number of players from Ireland’s matchday squad last year will not be involved in Thursday’s rematch – Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, and Cian Healy have all since hung up their boots, while Hugo Keenan, Robbie Henshaw, Andrew Porter, Calvin Nash, and Ryan Baird are all currently injured.

The front row ranks have certainly taken a battering in recent weeks, particularly at loosehead prop where Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle have joined Porter on the sidelines. Add to that the fact that lynchpin tighthead Tadhg Furlong is coming into the tournament nursing a calf injury.

Sheehan believes that Ireland have the squad depth to cope with those untimely injuries, saying: “I think we have confidence in the people we have. We’ve done a good job of building some good depth over the years.

“We’ve got some looseheads who have caps and other teams I think would struggle (losing those players), but I think we have good depth.

“We have good people to come in. I don’t think a whole lot has changed, or there’s been no sense of panic at all in that sort of situation.”

One of the loosehead options is Michael Milne, a player Sheehan knows very well from coming through the Leinster Academy and playing almost 50 times for the province before he joined Munster last year, firstly on loan before taking up a permanent contract.

Milne’s impressive form in the red jersey led to his first two Ireland caps against Georgia and Portugal last summer, and the Birr native is now poised to play in a Six Nations Championship for the first time.

Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby spoke at the weekend about ‘the competition for that loosehead spot being excellent’ between Munster duo Jeremy Loughman and Milne, and while the injury crisis in the position has somewhat clouded Ireland’s build-up, it does afford opportunities for other players to impress.

“I’ve just walked up from a scrum session there, and it looked like the two of them were going after each other and working hard,” said Easterby, as Farrell’s charges were coming towards the end of their training camp in Portugal.

“I think that’s part of the challenge and the excitement around a couple of players who haven’t been in for a while, in Jez and Mikey, getting an opportunity to step up. They’ve both been performing for Munster.

“You know, sometimes those times are forced. Sometimes they’re in there for form, and both of them have gone well. We’ve been really impressed with them.

“But for us, it’s just keeps adding depth to our squad, which is exactly what we want when we’re almost 18 months out from a World Cup.”

Milne, who was a try scorer for the Ireland XV team against Spain in November, played seven times during Leinster’s 2024/25 BKT United Rugby Championship title-winning campaign, and Sheehan feels he has what it takes to progress his game further on the international stage.

“Mikey is top quality. You’d seen him, he’s probably been earmarked since he has come out of school to be an international loosehead, and he definitely has the capability to be world class.

“He’s a smart rugby player, physical, can scrum well. Hopefully he can take his shot now when he gets it, and I think there will be no problems there.

“I think he has a good head on his shoulders, that he loves learning. He is definitely not too big for his boots. If anything, he needs to just get a bit more confidence in himself, and that’s our job to make sure he feels comfortable in the team. Looking forward to seeing how he goes,” he added.

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