Horan: ‘So far, so good’ on O’Connor’s recovery
His fellow Ballintubber club man suffered an aggravation of his shoulder injury in the semi-final victory over Tyrone last month. However, he has returned to non-contact training and Horan said they are attempting to speed up the recuperation period in time to face Dublin.
“He’s with the medical team. He’s rehabbing very well. He’s working a couple of times a day with the physios. I don’t think anyone knows. We’re just looking to see can he be a competitive option for selection.
“So far, so good. I’m not a medical expert. The muscles around it are obviously sore so you’re trying to rehab those muscles as well as you can. It’s usually a three or four-week recovery for something like that, from what I understand. You try accelerate that recovery, that’s basically what it is.”
In a lighter moment at last night’s press event in Breaffy, Horan compared the injury to one suffered by Mel Gibson’s Riggs character in Lethal Weapon 2. “You know, we’ve all watched Lethal Weapon. From again what I can take, it’s a very similar injury, so if it happens once or twice it’s not as significant if it keeps happening until you have an operation to deal with it. That’s my interpretation of it.”
Horan expects Joe McQuillan to referee the September 22 game. The Cavan official was in charge of last year’s semi-final between the counties.
In the week of last year’s decider with Donegal, RTÉ pundit Joe Brolly claimed there were 27 occasions in the Dublin game when McQuillan overlooked what he believed were cynical fouls on Mayo’s part.
Horan doesn’t anticipate similar negativity in the lead-up to this year’s final. “I don’t think so. There might be more pressure on the ref than any of the teams. Whoever is selected — and more than likely it will be Joe — will be very, very balanced and be as a good a ref as he can in that game.”
