Cruciate curse ends season for Cork defender Colm Spillane

Cork hurlers will be without defender Colm Spillane for the rest of 2016, after it was yesterday confirmed he suffered a cruciate tear in Saturday’s Division 1A game against Waterford.

The extent of the Castlelyons man’s knee injury was revealed by an MRI scan on Monday.

Spillane, 22, had to be replaced 10 minutes into the second half having performed well in the full-back role marking Maurice Shanahan.

“The news is devastating, firstly for the player himself and it is a huge blow for us as a management team,” said Kieran Kingston.

“He’s a big loss to our plans going forward because he was going very well.”

Spillane had only been recalled to the panel before Christmas having previously been part of the set-up under Jimmy Barry-Murphy in 2014.

It’s almost a year since Spillane’s fellow defender Christopher Joyce suffered a similar cruciate problem, which ended his 2015 season.

Spillane joins a growing list of hurlers who have suffered anterior cruciate ligament injuries this year.

Ger Aylward (Kilkenny), Pat Donnellan (Clare), and Sean Finn (Limerick) will all be missing because of the knee ailment.