Doc out of Wexford's Dublin clash

Wexford’s rising young star, David "Doc" O’Connor has ruled himself out of Sunday week's Guinness Leinster senior hurling championship semi-final clash with Dublin.

The Wexford corner-back received a nasty finger injury during Monday night's squad training session in Wexford Park which necessitated an operation yesterday. O’Connor has been ruled out of the game for three weeks.

Wexford Team Manager Tony Dempsey has confirmed that O’Connor is not just extremely doubtful but will not take any part in the semi-final.

"The injury is far worse than we feared and right now he would have to be extremely doubtful. We are taking a positive outlook to the situation but there’s no chance of him taking his usual corner-back position in the starting line-up", added Dempsey.

Ironically the incident which seems set to jeopardise O’Connor’s championship plans was quite simple.

"He went in to block Malachy Travers and was somewhat late, resulting in him getting a full blow of the hurley on the hand. But right now the injury looks serious enough to put him out of the Dublin game at least," said Dempsey.

Of some consolation to Wexford is that Adrian Fenlon returned to full training having recovered from a broken finger received in a recent challenge outing against Offaly, while Nicky Lambert who also received a broken finger in that game participated in some light hurling.

With the injury crisis in the camp mounting, Dempsey is showing a cautious approach to the Dublin game.

"We will be giving Dublin every respect - after all, it’s a provincial semi-final. They played some quality hurling against Meath.

"Two championship victories will increase their confidence so it’s a huge game for us. We have everything to lose so that will increase the pressure on the players," he said.