Murphy suffers skull fracture

WATERFORD’S Eoin Murphy has been moved to Cork University Hospital after fracturing his skull in a club game on Friday night.

The 32-year-old defender was moved from Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH) yesterday suffering bleeding from the brain. Doctors in WRH had been reluctant to release Murphy after he was complaining of severe headaches.

Friday’s game in Cappoquin between Murphy’s club Shamrocks and Abbeyside’s second team was abandoned following the incident when the player was accidentally struck.

Murphy is understood to have been knocked unconscious but had come around by the time he was taken away by ambulance. The incident leading to Murphy’s injury came with eight minutes remaining in the divisional intermediate championship game. Murphy received a blow from a hurley on the side of the head and almost instantly he lapsed into unconsciousness.

“It was a completely freak accident,” Shamrocks official James Tobin said.

“No one is to blame for it. It would have been so much worse however but for Eoin’s helmet.”

Having consulted with both clubs, referee John Condon decided to abandon the game which Abbeyside were leading at the time by just one point. Murphy, a medical representative and has set up home in Ballinacurra in east Cork, has suffered more than his fair share of injuries in a career which has brought him four Munster senior championships and a national league title.

He was sidelined for many months after breaking his leg and also suffered a broken jaw on another occasion.

Waterford continue their preparations for their Munster semi-final against Limerick on June 12 with a challenge against Cork in Clashmore this evening (6.30pm). They then face Tipperary next Sunday in Holycross to open the new John Doyle centre.

Meanwhile, John Mullane suffered a broken finger as De La Salle drew with Abbeyside in the Waterford championship while former inter-county star Ken McGrath broke his hand in Mount Sion's victory over Passage.