Injury woes for Ryan as Kildare slide continues

With 70 minutes on the clock in Newbridge eight days ago, Kildare were five points up on Tyrone and heading close to the summit of the league after three rounds.

Tyrone performed the Artful Dodger role to perfection, however, picking Kildare’s pockets in outrageous fashion to snatch victory and now, after another defeat by Dublin, the Lilies find themselves battling relegation.

Next up for them is a home tie against Kerry on Sunday, which is shaping up as a vital clash in the battle to avoid relegation.

Kildare manager Jason Ryan said: “I don’t know about that. I think it’s probably a bit early to be thinking like that. Like, last year, Kerry won their last three games and stayed up. You just don’t know. It’s a very competitive division, even the scoring difference comes into play.”

Kerry fans will be happy to hear that Kildare may be without several key performers again this weekend. John Doyle is just back in training while question marks hang over Emmet Bolton, Eamonn Callaghan and Niall Kelly.

Ryan said: “Emmet is there or thereabouts. Eamonn is not a million miles away but it’s probably the Derry game (Round 6) before we’ll see those guys. There’s probably a few more then who it won’t be until the Westmeath game (Round 7). Niall is really, really close, trained this morning so he’s in good form. Gary White unfortunately picked up a dead leg against Dublin. It’s very hard to assess how he’ll be for next weekend.”

Dublin have had their own injury list to contend with. So far, it hasn’t affected them in league terms and, with many of them now set to return, they should be even more formidable in the coming weeks.

Boss Jim Gavin said: “We had Cormac Costello on the bench against Kildare, Paul Mannion had a muscle injury for the last two weeks. Hopefully, they’ll come back next week.

“Rory O’Carroll was on the bench. He’ll play with his club now and please God he’ll get through that be in contention for next week. It was good to see Alan Brogan, Paddy Andrews and Darren Daly all playing . That was very positive. ”