Dublin's O'Carroll back in training

Dublin defender Rory O'Carroll is back in light training after undergoing ankle surgery last month, and expects to be fully fit within the next three weeks.

The Kilmacud Crokes clubman started at full-back in Dublin's opening four games of the Allianz Football League which brought victories over Cork, Kerry, Mayo and Kildare.

However, O'Carroll had already had scheduled surgery booked since last November and he missed the second half of the campaign, including the defeat to fellow league finalists Tyrone and last Sunday's semi-final victory over Mayo.

He is also ruled out of Sunday week's Allianz League final, but hopes to be back for Dublin's Leinster Championship quarter-final date with either Carlow or Westmeath on June 1.

O'Carroll opted to have the operation to clear out loose bone and cartilage in the ankle joint which had been causing him trouble in the past two campaigns.

"I'm just getting back running at the weekend and I will do more tonight and Thursday and then it'll probably be another two to three weeks before I get back playing," O'Carroll said at the launch of the Kellogg's GAA Cúl Camps in Croke Park today.

"There have been no complications or anything. Everything is going according to plan - so far, so good. It was just a simple clean-out.

"I was due to have the operation since last November. It's an ongoing problem I have had for two years. I just had to get it done. I didn't want to get to May, have a bad injury and then be out for six months. That was a possibility so I wanted to avoid that."

Competition for places in the Dublin squad at present has been keen, with 35 players already trialled by new manager Jim Gavin during the Allianz League campaign.

O'Carroll confesses that it was not an easy time to have an operation, but that hopefully he will reap the rewards from it later in the summer.

"With an injury like that there is never a good time (to have surgery)," he added.

"If I had waited until the end of the league there would be club Championship. It had to be done at some stage, but sure as long as Dublin are winning that's the most important thing!"