Injured McCarthy out of Cork hurling squad

Niall McCarthy has been ruled out of Cork’s qualifying series of matches after suffering a broken bone in his foot last Sunday.

The Carrigtwohill man limped out of Cork’s loss to Waterford last Sunday and it was confirmed this morning that he has a broken bone in his foot.

McCarthy broke a metatarsal bone and will definitely miss Cork’s matches against Dublin, Offaly and either Limerick or Tipperary.

And should Cork reach the All-Ireland quarter-finals, slated for July 22 and 29, the All-Star centre-forward is almost certain to miss out on that as well.

He will have to wear an air-cast for the next 6-8 weeks and as a result will not be able to train for that period of time.

That will lead to a loss of fitness and if Cork reach the penultimate stage of the championship, the centre-forward would also be in a race against time to be ready by then.

“Niall is definitely out for a while and he will be a massive loss,” said Cork selector Martin Bowen.

“We have no confirmation of a time-frame for his return but we can only hope that he recovers quickly because he is a huge player for us.”

Timmy McCarthy is the obvious replacement for Saturday week’s fixture with Dublin, with Neil Ronan also in contention.

Meanwhile, Cork have lodged a dramatic challenge over the selection of venues for the hurling qualifiers.

Cork contend that because home and away venues were not specified in the relevant motion before Congress last year that the assumption must be the venues are neutral.

Cork are scheduled to play Dublin in Parnell Park on Saturday week but that could now change.

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.