Injuries force Cork to delay naming side

CORK boss Conor Counihan will wait until later in the week before finalising his team for next Sunday’s Allianz Football League final against Dublin as he will then be better informed on the status of a number of key players battling injuries.

Aidan Walsh and Paul Kerrigan both incurred hamstring injuries last Saturday while on duty for the Cork U21’s and Nemo Rangers respectively while Ciarán Sheehan is a fresh injury doubt after picking up a knock to his ankle while playing for Cork IT in a county senior football championship tie on Monday evening. Walsh was a notable absentee for Cork IT as he did not tog out for that clash in Fermoy. But Counihan has refused to rule anyone out of his plans for the Croke Park clash.

“We won’t know until later on in the week really. We will make a decision on Aidan and Paul and Ciarán, who is another injury doubt as well, later in the week. We will leave it go down to the wire before we make a call on that. Ciarán has a bit of an ankle injury he picked it up in a club game. We could do without these problems but look, they are there now and we have to deal with it.”

The spate of injuries that have struck the Cork camp leads Counihan to believe that the congested schedule facing his players at this time of year needs to be seriously reviewed. The news from last weekend’s Congress in Mullingar that semi-finals are back on the agenda for next season’s league did not enamour the Cork boss either.

“There’s already a big debate going on about club versus county in the GAA. Getting the dates for games is difficult with the amount of Sunday’s available at this time of year. The fact that we’re going to plough into another Sunday now with league semi-finals is certainly a cause for concern.

“For some people it’s just overload and I do think people seriously need to look at it. We’ve done our best to manage it but every guy wants to play every game and they don’t want to leave anyone down. As managers we try to be as balanced as we possibly can. But ultimately when fixtures are being made, people need to take cognisance of what guys are expected to do.”

Meanwhile Derry attacker Paddy Bradley looks certain to miss the rest of the season after becoming the latest high-profile player to suffer damage to his cruciate ligament. Bradley follows an increasing list of stars that have been afflicted with Cork attacker Colm O’Neill, Kerry midfielder David Moran and Kildare defender Peter Kelly all having been struck by the same injury this season. Bradley incurred the injury while lining out for his club Glenullin in a league game against Bellaghy last weekend. The news will be a massive blow to Oak Leaf boss John Brennan as his side crank up their championship preparations ahead of an Ulster quarter-final meeting with Fermanagh on May 22.