Whelan will bounce back, says Andrews

Paddy Andrews is confident Dublin team-mate Jason Whelan can return to the team after his eight-week ban.

Whelan will be unavailable to Jim Gavin for the first three Allianz League Division 1 games after picking up the suspension following an O’Byrne Cup game against DCU earlier this month.

“It’s an unfortunate incident, it’s been looked after at the Leinster Council. I’m sure he’ll bounce back from that,” said Andrews.

“Ideally he would like to have gotten a couple of games in the earlier rounds of the league but that’s gone now.

“He just has to keep the head down now. It’s a long year, it’s not just about the first eight weeks in January and February. Hopefully, he comes back.”

Andrews himself is ruled out for the moment having had an operation on a Gilmore’s groin problem last month. Bernard Brogan, Dean Rock and James McCarthy are others currently on the treatment table.

The St Brigid’s man has been troubled with the problem for a large part of last summer when it ruled him out of the Leinster final and All-Ireland quarter-final.

Looking at a possible March return, he remarked: “I think I probably had been putting it off. I was fortunate enough that I did get to play in the All-Ireland semi-final and final. But after that it was just a matter of when and not if I’d have to get it done.”

For a player who earned his spot in the team last year after an impressive league campaign, Andrews knows the task that faces him when he does come back. He said: “That’s probably the worrying thing now when you’re missing a couple of games because there is such stiff competition.

“But, in all fairness to Jim, he’s very honest with players. If you’re playing well and you’re in the team, it doesn’t matter who’s waiting on the bench.”