Wycherley injury mars great win

ILEN ROVERS’ coach Flor O’Driscoll was a picture of calmness after watching his charges outplay Duhallow to reach their first Evening Echo Cork Co SFC semi-final at Páirc Ui Rinn on Saturday.

But you could still feel the ache in his words as he reflected on the injury that may force his talisman John Wycherley to miss the final after being carried off 20 minutes into the game with what looked a nasty knee injury.

“Look this man epitomises what Ilen Rovers are all about. The respect he commands amongst the players, his mere presence around the team make him a man apart.

“At the moment it doesn’t look good for him. We will get a scan done as quickly as possible and, hopefully, he’ll be right in two weeks time.

“It would be disastrous for us and all the team as a whole if he didn’t make it. His presence on the pitch is simply awesome”

And, for a comparatively new club – they were only formed back in 1973 – and putting the likes of great former champions like Bantry, Beara, Clonaklty, O’Donovan Rossa and Carbery in the shade, maybe O’Driscoll was just a bit too modest.

“Look we have no silverware yet. Yes, this was a fine win, and I’m delighted for this great bunch of players, but this is just another step in our development.

“The key for us now is to be up for it. We were poor against Nemo the first day, very poor, but I’m confident we are a better team now, we’ve come a long way. Our confidence is up, that has to be good, and we are a certainly far better prepared.”

He continued’ “Yes the goals were every important for us tonight, I felt we were being strangled up to then and it forced Duhallow to come at us.

“This victory is all about the panel. It’s been a rough rocky for us, the lads have really put their shoulders to the wheel since the Nemo game. This win will give us a huge lift. We know what Nemo can do, they are great champions, but we’ll do everything possible to be ready.”