There was a piece by Mike Finnerty on the RTÉ website yesterday (here) which replicated in large part a report he’d penned in this week’s Mayo News about what’s going on with players injured, players readying to come back and all that.
Let’s deal with the headline news first, which is that midfielder Seamus O’Shea damaged ankle ligaments in training recently and so will play no further part in this year’s League campaign.
To be honest, Seamie had seen very little action this year prior to the injury. The only game he started was the FBD match against Leitrim in early January and his sole League appearance was when he came on at Croke Park for the second half against Dublin. He replaced the injured Paddy Durcan at the break in that game, coming in at midfield with Donal Vaughan switching to wing-back.
While Seamie’s absence doesn’t alter much for us from a playing perspective ahead of our final two League games, the fact that the injury he suffered is described as “significant ankle ligament damage” has to be of at least some concern. It sounds like a problem that could take months, not weeks, to recover from, which, if this is the case, might well render the experienced midfielder unavailable for the opening stages of the Championship.
Elsewhere, the news is more positive. Ger Cafferkey and Paddy Durcan, who, as well as Ciaran Treacy, went off injured in the Dublin game, are expected to be available for selection for the Kerry game. Ciaran – who hobbled off with an ankle injury at Croke Park – might not be fit for Round 6 but Evan Regan, injured late on in the opening round match against Roscommon, may be back for Tralee.
So too might longer-term absentee Cillian O’Connor. The county’s all-time leading scorer underwent knee surgery prior to Christmas and he said last month that his worst case expectation was that he’d be back in action by mid-to-late March.
I’d say there’s a chance we might see Cillian make a substitute appearance against Kerry, though I’d imagine this would depend very much on our need for a result down in Tralee. If Galway beat Roscommon earlier that day then the Kerry match is stripped of any importance from our point of view so the only reason to pitch him in there would be to give him a bit of a gallop. Were this to happen then we’d be likely to start him in the final round game against Monaghan the following weekend.
That piece linked to at the top also confirms that there’s no return date as yet for Cian Hanley – who, like Cillian, underwent knee surgery before Christmas – but he definitely won’t be back ahead of our final two League matches.
There’s no word, though, about Ryan O’Donoghue, who underwent ankle surgery soon after captaining Belmullet to the county Intermediate championship title late last year. An article on the GAA website (here) at the start of the year stated that he was expected to be back “in time for the latter stages” of the League but there’s no sign as yet that this will happen.
Another player who has played a bit for us so far this year but seems to have disappeared off the radar is Conor Diskin. He’s not mentioned in Mike’s injury list piece and I’m not even sure at this stage that he’s injured at all. Whatever the reason for his absence, though, he’s definitely no longer featuring in the fairly prominent way he did at the start of the year.
Not sure if some players are playing challenge games under the radar especially with so many of our games on TV, Conor o Shea was playing with Breaffy recently but was on the bench last Saturday, looks like James Horan is making sure everyone is getting game time , if not involved on match day they play with their clubs. Diskin for me will be around in the summer from the games he played he never looked out of place.
So disappointing re Seamie. Can he not catch any bit of luck..only back after shoulder injury last summer. Such effort to be living in Dublin. And him like the others doing this for years on end. Legends.
I heard a reason for Diskin’s absence but I won’t post it here for fear it’s untrue. Not an injury and nothing major – hopefully we’ll see him get another shot over the next few weeks. Hanley was on Off the Ball last Saturday talking about his AFL experience and didn’t give any dates for being back. He was over at his brother (who I think has some sort of fitness/coaching business) in the States doing rehab for a couple of weeks and that he would be speaking to the physio this week to make a plan but hoped to back soon.
Heard the same .
Drog and Séan Burke, I probably heard what ye heard!…If you are not injured and not mentioned on the panel, maybe your not on the panel and maybe won’t be on the panel this year anyhow…. I think our extended panel was going to be culled in any case…. I would disagree with Willie Joe, in saying that if Galway beat the Rossies that the game is stripped of any importance for us… Well a performance is badly needed, I wouldn’t rule out a win for us either, even if it seems a long shot…Kerry are already in the League Final, they have played a fairly settled side so far in the league. They might want to experiment and give some game time to several guy’s… Name’s that very few ever heard of, like David Clifford, Paul Geaney and former Player of the year, James O Donaghue might very well be the player’s have the (misfortune) to experiment with..(unfortunate for us) ..On the other hand, the Rossies weren’t that far away from Dublin last Sunday, a rejuvenated Tyrone might just possibly get a result versus the Dubs… The ‘unbeatable versus the unbearable’..If we were to surprise Everyone including ourselves and beat Kerry, it’s mathematically possible to still make the League Final. . It’s never over until the ‘Fat Lady’ sings… apologies in advance, I seen last week, on this Blog, some more PC than myself were not all so appreciative of someone (not me) describing the Mayo Ladies as ‘good looking’… so I will change that line from.. it’s not over until the ‘Fat Lady’ sings, to it’s not over until the ‘Ref blow’s the final whistle’.. Mind you, last Saturday night, Maurice Deegan wasn’t exactly complimented on his good looks or anything else either last Saturday in McHale Park, and I think it might well have been the ‘Referees assesor’ shouting some of the ‘Non PC’ stuff in the direction of the man with the whistle!
3 positional Changes I would like to see happen for Kerry game.First Zippy to play Half back instead of the corner back spot and Aidan O’Shea to play in a sitting Defensive Midfielder role with D’OC and Ruane playing as 2 attacking midfielders.
3rd would be to play Drake at full back on Tommy Walsh, I have had doubts about Drake before but think he could do a really good job on a target man Full Forward like Walsh, he marked Aido really well for Ballagh v Breaffy in Club semi finals last year.
Team for Kerry
1.Robbie Hennelly
2.Chris Barrett
3.David Drake/Donal Vaughan on Tommy Walsh
4.Brendan Harrison
5.Keith Higgins
6.Lee Keegan on Sean O’Shea
7.Paddy Durcan
8.Aidan O’Shea
9.Matty Ruane
10.Fionn McDonagh/ Kevin McLoughlin
11.Diarmuid O’Connor
12.Jason Doherty
13.Conor Diskin
14.Brian Reape
15.Ciaran Treacy/Darren Coen
I see DOC is named captain for the year ahead and Paddy vice captain, good choices! Mayo have a still a good chance of making final and should go for it, getting towardsvend if league now and they should be settling on a team and upping the anti!
Best of luck to Diarmuid O’Connor, new captain!
Niall Cullen will be the ref for the Kerry game. He was the ref that Jordan Flynn pushed after getting sent off in the U20 AI final last August.
Any word on Tom Parsons` progress?
Ivan – Tom is mentioned as well in that piece on the RTE website, but only to say that he’s continuing his rehab and “is making good progress”. In his case it’s still way too soon to be talking about when he might be fully fit again.
Terrible injury, it would be wonderful if Tom could get back playing football again at any level. It would be a huge ask to get to inter county level again but he seems to be a very determined young man. Any person that that enjoys our games would love to see him play again, heard him being interviewed some time ago and he is clearly a total gent.
Any queries as to why Eoin o’Don not getting game time, he was our most consistent performer in the league last year. He is tight marking, no nonsense corner back. A o’Laoi was given the freedom of McHale last week & it called for someone like EOD to pick him up.
Lots of other positives to take so far so hopefully a long year ahead. Connaught title has to be the target at the very least, sick of listening to the neighbours. “that’s 7 in a row now” : (