Hands ace Cathal out until July
CATHAL MCSHANE is unlikely to play competitive football before July after badly dislocating his ankle in Tyrone’s defeat to Galway on Sunday.
The All Star forward suffered the injury when landing awkwardly in the second half of the game in Tuam, which Tyrone lost by 19 points.
It’s believed that he will be unable to return to full training for around four months so, on that basis, the earliest he could hope to return to competitive action would likely be for the ‘Super 8s’, should Tyrone progress that far.
The first round of games in that phase of the Championship takes place on the weekend of July 11/12. At the very least, at appears as though he’ll miss all of the Ulster Championship, which
Tyrone start with a difficult tie against holders Donegal on May 17.
While the recovery time for ankle dislocations vary and can be as little as eight weeks, the nature of Mcshane’s injury points to a significantly longer lay-off.
Tyrone followers had already resigned themselves to the likelihood of being without the 24-year-old this year in any event when it emerged he was going on a two-week trial with AFL side Adelaide Crows, though he decided against a move down under earlier this month.
“Sometimes you just land in a bad way and it’s just so unfortunate because he made such an effort to decide to stay at home with us and now he’s gone for God knows how long,” said boss Mickey Harte.
“League points come and go but people’s health is more important.”