Boss looks forward despite losing ‘heartbeat’
The Mayo County Board yesterday released a statement confirming he had suffered “significant knee ligament damage” and was likely to miss the rest of the season. He will receive further medical advice in the coming days.
Midway through the second half against Down, the Mayo captain twisted his knee unchallenged and collapsed in agony. Moran called for medical attention immediately and was visibly distraught afterwards with an ice pack attached to his right knee.
The injury is suspected to be a cruciate ligament tear, meaning the Ballaghaderreen man could be out of the game for up to nine months. After losing their leader, manager James Horan admitted there were mixed emotions in the Mayo dressing room.
He was effusive in his praise of the 2011 All Star forward even if he was resigned to being without him for next month’s All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin.
“Andy is the heartbeat and the soul of the team. He was playing great stuff so yeah, of course it’s a disappointment. But Andy would be the first to say that it’s going to be an opportunity for somebody else.
“We’ll get the diagnosis and take it from there. But we’ll be back training on Tuesday night and it’ll be an opportunity for someone else to slip in there.
“We’re lucky that we have a strong panel with some good young players coming through. We have to look at it that way. But yeah, of course it’s disappointing for Andy, after the work he’s put in since getting a broken leg last year in the Aussie Rules trials.”
Horan underlined the importance of moving on from the setback.
“It’s important that you acknowledge achievement as well. But Andy, as I said, is a huge player so there’s a lot of guys that are disappointed for him. But as we always do we’ll just get on with it. We need to kick on.”
There was better news for Mayo with midfielder Aidan O’Shea making his first start since the league after recovering from a groin injury.
Horan admitted the Breaffy man is not fully fit but he was still able to play 65 minutes, impressing in winning a lot of dirty ball.
“Aido is a huge player for us. He’s not as fit as he could be yet.
“The amount of work he’s done to be available to play at this stage of the year has been unbelievable. No one has any idea what that guy has gone through. Look, he’s getting fitter and fitter and, you know, we have four weeks now to see how fit we can get him.”
Horan also gave praise to two-goal hero Michael Conroy who, like O’Shea, wasn’t chosen in the named team but started Saturday’s game.
“Everyone down in Mayo knows what Mickey C can do. He got 2-1 and showed very well for ball that gave us an outlet every time.”
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