Clare Board to probe Carmody's injury

THE Clare County Board will carry out an investigation into a shoulder injury sustained by Tony Carmody in a weekend club game that could force him to miss a Garda trainee examination on Friday week.

Carmody was playing a starring role at full-forward for Inagh in the intermediate hurling championship against Clooney in Clarecastle on Saturday evening when a hurley was thrown at him.

One Clooney player was sent off, but it has been reported that a second member of the opposing team was involved in the incident.

Carmody, who had an impressive role in Clare's All-Ireland campaign, fell to the ground after the hurley was thrown at him. While he was on the ground, a Clooney defender allegedly fell on him.

An ambulance took him to hospital, where it was found that no bones had been broken. He was released yesterday.

However, instead of returning to Templemore to continue studies for the exam, he had to receive physiotherapy.

"The Inagh club would like to see Tony back to health as quickly as possible," a team spokesman said yesterday. "That is our first priority. Things like what happened in this game are not good enough in sport. Tony should have been back in Tipperary studying for his examination. Instead, he was in the Regional Hospital in Limerick," he said. Inagh have won three rounds of the intermediate championship, played on a league basis. They are guaranteed a quarter-final place and could go straight through to the semi-final.

Clare chairman Michael McNamara said that the incident was regretful, and had been "out of character" with the spirit in which the game had been played.

"But, it was serious from the point of view that any player would do what was done. There is no excuse for it," Fr McNamara said.

"We will certainly be dealing with it, and dealing with it very seriously. The kind of thing that happened has no place in either hurling or football or in any sport," he said.

Fr McNamara said that the board had been pleased generally with the discipline in the county championships. The only other incident occurred in a senior football game between Doonbeg and Kilmurray/Ibrickane. That is under investigation.