Honohan escapes cruciate curse

Paul Honohan has become the latest Cork footballer to suffer a knee injury.

However, manager Conor Counihan is confident the Bishopstown attacker is not a victim of the cruciate curse that has hit the Rebels over the past 12 months.

Honohan, who started at corner-forward in last month’s McGrath Cup final win over Tipperary, sustained the damage when challenging for possession in a county training game at the Na Piarsaigh grounds on Tuesday night.

He will undergo a scan this week but indications are that he has damaged his lateral ligament and will face a spell of eight to 10 weeks on the sidelines.

Colm O’Neill, Ciarán Sheehan and David Goold — who all featured with Honohan in the 2009 All-Ireland U21-winning attack — have all torn cruciate ligaments in the last year. However, Counihan is optimistic that he is not set to lose another young attacking star to a long-term knee injury.

Counihan said: “We’ll get a diagnosis during the week. It does look as if there’s some ligament damage but we’re confident that it isn’t one of the more serious ones. It’s been a rough couple of months that way but look, hopefully we’ve seen the back of that.”

Cork bosses also revealed the decision to replace Eoin Cadogan at half-time in Sunday’s Division 1 league win over Down was a precautionary measure as the Douglas player sustained a slight back injury but is expected to make a speedy recovery.

Cork are also hopeful that Colm O’Neill (hamstring) and Aidan Walsh (ankle) will be fit for the league tie away to Donegal on March 4.

Daniel Goulding, who underwent an ankle operation in December, has resumed straight line running but is six weeks off a return to competitive action.