Sherlock set for another season with Dublin

ALL-IRELAND winner Jason Sherlock has committed himself to Dublin for another season.

Sherlock, who won championship honours in 1995, wasn’t included in the county panel for the O’Byrne leading to speculation that his intercounty career had come to an end.

However Dublin football bosses last night insisted that the attacker is part of their plans as the bid to land Sam Maguire for the first time in 15 years.

A spokesperson said Sherlock met with the county management this week and agreed that he won’t take part in the squad for the duration of the O’Byrne Cup and NFL campaign.

However all parties agreed that the player would instead concentrate on his club football commitments up to April, but will be training and focused on being in contention for a place in the championship panel.

Sherlock is the only current panellist who holds an All-Ireland SFC medal from Dublin’s last win in 1995.

Due to the current weather conditions, the Leinster Council have postponed this weekend’s first round of the O’Byrne Cup, and rescheduled all games for the following weekend.

Dublin face Wexford on Sunday, January 17 at Parnell Park (2pm).

Meanwhile, Kildare footballer Mikey Conway has vowed not to take any short cuts in his recovery from the cruciate ligament operation which he underwent last September.

Originally, the highly versatile Conway, who injured his right knee during the All-Ireland qualifiers’ fourth round clash against Wicklow last July, had hoped to make his comeback to competitive football towards the end of the NFL campaign in April.

But four months after his operation, the Nurney clubman has revised his expectations despite the fact that he has not suffered any setbacks to the rehab programme which he has been consistently following in the gym.

“I’ve been going to the gym every day since shortly after the operation, and working on the exercise bike and swimming,” explained Conway (23), who underwent surgery under renowned sports injury specialist Ray Moran, brother of Kevin, at Dublin’s Santry Sports Clinic.

“So far, everything has gone very well for me, but I still have a bit of work to do to build up the muscle sufficiently to allow me to start doing a bit of light jogging. I’ve decided not to set myself any targets with regard when I get back playing with Kildare again.

“If I do manage to get playing in a league game or two, it will be a huge bonus. But if I don’t make a league game, it won’t be the end of the world. I will be taking things very gradually, and making sure that I don’t rush things in order to avoid running the risk of suffering a setback, and so delaying my comeback by at least a number of weeks. Recovering from an injury like this, you never know when something could go wrong, and obviously that is the last thing I want to happen."