Rossies lose O'Carroll for rest of season

Roscommon wing back Mark O'Carroll's 2010 Championship lasted barely 30 seconds as a serious knee injury will sideline him for the remainder of the campaign.

O'Carroll suffered a broken kneecap in the opening minute of Sunday's Connacht SFC quarter-final against London. He was taken to a hospital ten minutes from the Ruislip ground and is expected to undergo surgery within the next 48 hours.

The incident which led to the St. Brigid's clubman being left in agony was described by Roscommon PRO Michael Fahey as "most unusual" and "totally accidental".

From his vantage point, he said that a London player had pulled on the ball and caught O'Carroll's knee instead.

Roscommon shrugged off the early setback to claim a 0-14 to 0-6 victory at Ruislip, booking a provincial semi-final against Leitrim at Dr Hyde Park on Sunday, June 20.

But manager Fergal O'Donnell was left disappointed by his side's second half efforts as they failed to put a poor London outfit to the sword, hitting ten wides in total.

"We're happy to get through, but we're not happy with our second half performance," said O'Donnell.

"I thought we did well to go in six points up (0-8 to 0-2) at half-time, despite playing against the breeze, but the second half was very bad.

"To play against a Division 4 team and concede scores like we did was very disappointing. We gifted London goal chances and if they had taken them, it would have been a completely different story. At times our defence was non-existent."