O’Rourke set for championship return

Meath manager Mick O’Dowd is praying the second coming of Shane O’Rourke will solve his midfield dilemma.

The Royals have been rocked by the loss of cruciate victim Conor Gillespie for the rest of the year but O’Rourke’s return has added a silver lining to that particular cloud.

Towering O’Rourke, 26, son of county legend Colm, was Meath’s brightest prospect before being sidelined for years with hip trouble.

He finally returned to action in the Leinster quarter-final win over Carlow — three years after last playing for the county.

Ironically, that game in 2011 was against Kildare, whom Meath face in the provincial semi-final on Sunday.

“I suppose no-one other than Shane knows the long hours that he’s put in to get himself back onto the pitch,” said O’Dowd. “It’s a credit to him.

“He has done a huge amount of rehab. Really, the first step was just getting comfortable with football again at the club last year.

“If we’d got over Tyrone (played in last year’s Round four qualifier) in the Championship, he would have came back in then because he’d a good number of club matches under his belt at that stage.

“In terms of player welfare and development, we’d definitely have a long-term view to a lot of the stuff we’re doing and Shane is a case in point, you don’t rush these things.”

Gillespie had a separate injury during this year’s league while Brian Meade was out too. So O’Rourke had a good run in Meath’s relatively successful Division 2 campaign.

It wasn’t the way O’Dowd wanted it but it worked out well in light of Gillespie’s subsequent season-ending lay-off.

“At the start of the league, you would have been thinking, ‘Shane is going to need to be played and rested, played and rested’,” said O’Dowd. “But he actually played all the games. It’s kind of helped him in his recovery back to that level.”

O’Rourke, who scored two points from full-forward in the 2007 All-Ireland semi-final, came through the Carlow game injury free, alongside Meade.

And on Sunday’s game, O’Dowd views the Lilies as an experienced bunch who can’t be taken lightly.

“A lot of the players that were there over the last five or six years are still there,” said the ex-Meath forward. “There’s a few new exciting players as well.

“They’ve always been a pretty consistent team. They’ve been a top-eight team for the last five or six years. They scored 1-22 against Louth which is a big score, particularly against a side that was up and running in the Championship. We know what’s ahead of us.”