Clifford siblings among host of absentees for Derry tie BRO NO.. KERRY CAN’T CALL ON STAR MEN
SUPERSTAR brothers David and Paudie Clifford are both likely to miss Kerry’s Allianz League opener against Derry.
The Fossa aces, who did not finish their club season until the county intermediate final defeat on the third Sunday in November, have only recently returned to training and taken no part in the Mcgrath Cup.
Kerry manager Jack O’connor also confirmed last night that regular centre-back Tadhg Morley (below left) is just back in the squad after being on honeymoon.
And Paul Geaney’s wife gave birth to their third child in the last couple of days so is also unavailable.
“The two Cliffords are just back, they’re just doing a bit of running, they haven’t really played football with us yet so they’re kind of in preseason mode,”
O’connor said.
“As for Paul
Geaney, himself and his missus had a child a few days ago so he’s taking care of those matters which are more important than any football. Tadhg was late coming back because he was away with nuptial matters. He hasn’t much done and the body is just reacting to the training. He’s a bit tight and sore but I wouldn’t think that it’s anything major.”
When pressed on the possibility of the Cliffords making an appearance for the visit of Mickey Harte’s Mckenna Cup winners in Tralee on Saturday, O’connor answered in the negative.
“No, because they haven’t really done any full-out training with us. It’s just pre-season stuff that they’re doing,” he said.
Kerry will also be without the injured Mike Breen, Tony
Brosnan, Stefan Okunbor and Ruairi Murphy for the clash while regular midfielder Diarmuid O’connor (below right) got 15 minutes off the bench against Cork on Saturday in his first run-out of 2024.
O’connor added: “Diarmuid is just on the way back, he had an injury coming out of the club championship. He got a small bit of action the last day but he wouldn’t have a whole pile of football played with us.”
Meanwhile, O’connor admitted that
Kerry were chasing their tails from the outset last season, dicing with relegation after only winning three of their seven league matches.
While aiming to unearth new players, he does not want to be in the same position again. “I wouldn’t like to see a scenario where Kerry would be relegated, I just wouldn’t.
“I would find it hard to live with for many different reasons,” he stressed.
“That doesn’t mean that we won’t try to find players through the National League, absolutely we will. You’d hope to be in a situation where every game isn’t do-or-die, where you can try a few things.
“That was not the case last year. We were more or less forced to put out our strongest team in a lot of games to try and get to six points.”