Nemo Rangers play down fears over Paul Kerrigan injury

Nemo Rangers expect star attacker Paul Kerrigan to figure in the All-Ireland series, despite departing the Munster club final with a leg injury late on yesterday, writes Michael Moynihan.

“Paul thinks it’s not too bad,” said Nemo manager Larry Kavanagh. “He thinks it’s just jarred rather than a ligament issue, but we’ll know soon.

“He’s another player who could do with a break, so that’ll help, too.”

Cian Mawhinney, who picked up a serious back injury in the county final, may not feature for Nemo in the All-Ireland series, but he travelled on the bus with his teammates to yesterday’s game with Dr Crokes.

“He’s taking it day by day,” said Kavanagh, “He’s getting physiotherapy, and five or six weeks over Christmas might make a big difference. We wouldn’t bank on having him. If he makes it, great.”

Kavanagh said Nemo had not given any thought to the All-Ireland series before yesterday: “We’ll take a couple of weeks’ break now. It’s so long, the campaign, you’re going nearly 12 months and you might need a different type of player, potentially, when you get to this time of the year anyway.

“The lads are so good to train I’m nearly asking them to take a break. They’ll probably tip away and train themselves but I want them to take a break from collective training anyway.”

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.