EVAN HELP HIM Regan needs surgery after ‘dirty tackle’ says Keegan
MAYO’S Lee Keegan has expressed anger at a facial injury sustained by teammate Evan Regan against Kerry.
Regan suffered a fracture and concussion and had to be replaced following a challenge from Ronan Shanahan in the course of Kerry’s 1-15 to 2-9 Allianz League win in Castlebar on Saturday night.
Shanahan was yellow carded at the time and later dismissed for a second bookable offence.
However, the Ballina Stephenites man, who is yet to establish himself as a first choice attacker under Stephen Rochford, will be out of the shop window for the foreseeable future and looks set to miss the remainder of the League.
“I thought he was doing ok, I thought he had a good game against Monaghan,” said Keegan, speaking in his role as an ambassador for Sports Physio Ireland.
“Got a bad tackle at the weekend, a very dirty tackle and he got a bad outcome there; a broken jaw.
“He’s going to have to try and look after that for a couple of months anyway. We’re still looking at a couple of guys, a lot of young guys at the moment so I think Stephen’s going to change it up hopefully again and get a look at these guys and see where they are.”
Elaborating on the Regan clash, he continued: “Very bad challenge to be honest. I was literally in line with it. It was bad now, I have to say.
“I was chatting to him [on Sunday] and he was in a bad way still. I know he got a bit of bad news, he has to get surgery now I think.
“That’s the outcome of that which is unfortunate because again, it was a prime opportunity for him to put his name in there and try get a starting spot for Championship.
“It’s something he’s been trying to do for the last couple of years. As I said, he had started well in the League and it’s unfortunate.
“It happened a few years ago against Kerry where he broke his collarbone as well. Kerry seems to be a bit of a bad omen for him.”
Keegan will do well to see action in the League himself as he recovers from hip surgery following their Allireland final loss to Dublin, though the 2016 Footballer of the Year hopes to return for the back end of the competition.
“I didn’t know I was going to get surgery originally, it was something that was at me from Galway in the championship last year, I was comfortable and uneasy and I had a bony kind of feeling in my hips.
“In the short term I was getting an injection or two to kill the pain from time to time but long term that was probably more damaging.
“Towards the end of the year I met the consultant in Waterford and he recommended I get it done and ever since I have been happy, no pain and able to move pain free so very happy.
“They shaved between 5mm and 8mm off each bone and there was bit of cartilage damage and there was a tear in each as well.
“The right one was a bit messy and the left wasn’t as bad, there was a lot of from he twisting and training from the box drills so I’ll be watching myself and try and be a bit more smart.” LEE KEEGAN believes if Mayo scale the Dublin peak once, they’ll do it repeatedly.
Mayo haven’t beaten Dublin in their last 12 League and Championship clashes, with their last victory coming in the 2012 All-ireland semi-final, and they meet again in the League in Castlebar on February 24.
Keegan (above), who has hit the net in each of Mayo’s last two All-ireland finals against the Dubs, reflected: “I suppose if we’d beaten Dublin once we could have beaten two or three times, and have two or three All-irelands. But because Dublin are so good we don’t.
“We’re looking at the tiniest of margins trying to beat them.
“The biggest thing for this group is that until we beat Dublin, and that’s up to us to find those margins, I don’t have the answer to that yet, the League game might tell us a bit more about where we’re at, and where Dublin are at. Until the core group of us actually beat Dublin then that’s going to be the biggest factor.
“I think once we get over the line once with them then we’re going to have that belief to say, ‘You know what, if we get them in another big game we know we can beat them’.
“And we believe we can beat them, that’s not our issue. It’s that we have to beat them, that’s where our problems come from.”