COLEMAN OUT FOR 12 MONTHS
Captain’s career on line after horror tackle snaps leg in two places
SÉAMUS Coleman will be out of football for a year as he begins his recovery from a horrific double fracture to his right leg. He will miss the remainder of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup campaign and a chunk of next season’s Premier League.
The 28-year-old Irish captain underwent surgery in Dublin yesterday to mend the tibia and fibula shattered following a reckless challenge by Welsh defender Neil Taylor at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night. The operation, carried out by Professor John O’Byrne, the FAI’s orthopaedic consultant, and surgeon Mr Gary O’Toole, was a success with no complications.
But such was the damage inflicted in the high-speed tackle that it will probably be 12 months before he is fully fit again. The key challenge for the Everton man is to regain the zip and suppleness to his game.
Asked after the game on Friday could the injury be careerthreatening, Irish manager Martin O’Neill was diplomatic.
‘I don’t want to make guesses here about it,’ he said. Yet after the surgery, O’Neill was more upbeat. ‘Séamus is so mentally strong that when he has fully recovered he will be as brilliant as before,’ he predicted. Dr.