O’Mahony blow to hurlers’ chances
WITH the Munster Championships now just a matter of weeks away all eyes are trained on who is available and who is not.
Cork’s senior hurlers weren’t doing too bad on the injury front to this point however the loss of Newtownshandrum’s Tim O’Mahony last weekend to a serious elbow injury is a big blow to the county’s hurling chances of success.
O’Mahony was probably the most impressive player in this year’s league campaign and looked to be a shoo-in for a berth at centre-back for the upcoming championship.
With the big ball, Cork are going to head into their provincial campaign missing a host of hugely talented players as the likes of Brian O’Driscoll, Paul Kerrigan and Sean Powter all looking like being out for varying periods with Cork manager Ronan McCarthy outlining the situation as he sees it.
“Brian O’Driscoll has had a bit of a roller-coaster in that he was out and gone for the season, and then there was a possibility he’d be back.
“At the moment, we’re going to delay an operation and he has some chance of being involved, an outside chance, I’d say, but we’ll see over the next couple of weeks. But we wouldn’t rule him out for the year yet.”
There was better news for players like Brian Hurley, Aidan Walsh and James Loughrey with recent appearances raising the levels of optimism surrounding their return.
“I think the game will be too soon for Sean Powter and for Paul Kerrigan, but Aidan Walsh should be fine. He’s back training fully. It will be a major surprise to see Sean [Powter] and Paul [Kerrigan] play any role in the Tipperary or Waterford game.
“James Loughrey also played in the challenge game against Galway so that is good for us”.
Cork will also be without Nemo Rangers’ star Barry O’Driscoll who decided to give the campaign a skip this time round.
“Barry’s opted out so he won’t be with us.
“We wanted him to be there and he said he wanted to opt out. We’ll move on. Everyone makes their own decision. At the end of the day Barry was straight up, no messing, and while I mightn’t agree with his decision we respect it and we drive on.”
Cork will hope to lose no more players before they step out in what will be a pressure semi-final against either Tipp or Waterford at the end of May.