Lynch and Miskella on mend

CORK hope to have key defensive duo Anthony Lynch and John Miskella available for their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final tie on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Lynch and Miskella were late withdrawals from the side before Sunday’s Munster final with groin and knee injuries, respectively, and theirabsences were sorely felt against an impressive Limerick attack.

Cork selector Ger O’Sullivan revealed: “We were hoping right up until the game that they’d be fit but it didn’t become evident until Saturday that they weren’t going to make it.

“Anthony suffered a groin injury last week in training and that was bothering him. John’s knee is still troubling him since the drawn Kerry match and he aggravated it again recently. We’d be hopeful that they’ll be okay for the All-Ireland quarter-final but the difficulty is upcoming club games. There’s a busy schedule ahead and we’ll need every one to pull through.”

Lynch is a doubt for his club Naomh Abán’s crunch Cork SFC third round replay clash against Duhallow on Sunday, while Miskella’s club Ballincollig will be involved in both football and hurling action in the coming weeks. Cork panellist Derek Kavanagh was ruled out of contention for the Limerick game after damaging his shoulder in training but Alan O’Connor, who was forced off with a cut below his eye, is set to make a speedy recovery.

Meanwhile Michael Shields has admitted that the absence of Lynch and Miskella was a huge pre-match blow.

“Especially against Kerry, Miskella and Lynchie were huge pluses for us. Anthony Lynch is a warrior in defence, he’s the leader, Miskella is just a top-class player, he’s an international player, he’s been doing it for the past few years. They were definitely big losses and we hope to have them back as soon as possible.”

Shields revealed there was a huge sense of relief in their camp at escaping with victory from Sunday’s decider.

“When they went four points up in the second half, and we had a lot of wides and missed a few goal chances, you’d be thinking maybe it mightn’t be our day. But we stuck at it, we ground out a result. We’re still there which is the main thing.”

Cork’s first-half play was riddled with uncharacteristic errors and Shields acknowledged his culpability in an Ian Ryan point for Limerick.

“The ball was hopping strangely and fellas were making a few errors. They pounced on a few mistakes of our own, including one of mine. Limerick took advantage and really punished us. They came at us and worked up a lead then. We had a few chances but didn’t take them, so we made it an uphill battle, especially going in at half-time.

“It was frustrating, especially when we’d work the ball up from the backs and all of a sudden they’d come down the pitch and bang it over the bar.”

The manner of Cork’s win is likely to douse the hype about their status as All-Ireland contenders but Shields believes they can still go forward to the last eight in a positive frame of mind.

“At the end of the day, we won the Munster final, which is what we set out to do. We’re in the All-Ireland quarter-final, we beat Kerry convincingly, so there’s a lot of pluses too. I don’t mean it in a bad way to Limerick or anything, but we beat Kerry and you’re thinking, ‘We’re going well now’. It took such a battle to beat Kerry after the replay, and we beat them so convincingly. We knew it was going to be a hard game, I don’t think anyone said we were going to coast past Limerick. I know it was a bad game, we didn’t play well; we got there eventually but we had to grind out the result. If we played like that again I don’t think it would do, so we’ll have to up it over the next few weeks in training, get things right and have a look at things.”