Trio of Cork defenders to miss Division 2 campaign

Midfield totem Ian Maguire will also absent for the opening rounds.

Tue, 21 Jan, 2025 - 21:15

Eoghan Cormican

Cork football’s League promotion bid has been notably weakened by the confirmation that defenders Luke Fahy, Kevin O’Donovan, and Seán Meehan will miss the entire Division 2 campaign, with midfield totem Ian Maguire also absent for the opening rounds.

Factor in the recent Sigerson Cup injury incurred by David Buckley, Steven Sherlock’s year out, Jack Cahalane moving across to the hurling panel, Conor Corbett’s ruptured cruciate from last summer, and the off-season retirements of Killian O’Hanlon, John O’Rourke, and Tom Clancy, and it all adds up to manager John Cleary being without several players he'd have wanted available for this latest Division 2 escape bid. Meath, at home this Saturday (5pm), is the first fixture in that promotion push.

Luke Fahy (hamstring) and Kevin O’Donovan (ankle) both underwent surgery following the conclusion of their respective club campaigns, while Meehan suffered his latest hamstring setback the week before last. The return-to-play date for this collection of defenders is April.

“Luke got injured in a club match for Ballincollig, against the Barrs (county quarter-final), and had an operation. Kevin O'Donovan was carrying it all last year, even in the county final he was half-injured. He had an operation too and is recovering,” said John Cleary at a Cork GAA-organised media luncheon on Tuesday afternoon.

“Ian Maguire has a quad injury coming back from the club season and needs to take care of it. David Buckley picked up a hamstring injury with MTU Cork last week.

"Tommy Walsh is just about back now from injury and he has been training, so he's in the frame for the weekend.”

Asked by the Irish Examiner as to the circumstances surrounding Steven Sherlock’s decision to opt out of the panel, Cleary said it was nothing more than a player wanting a year out.

“The conversation was quite simple; he had flagged very early after the [2024] championship had finished that it was his plan to take a year out. Simple as. There were no other complications, never said anything to me about anything else other than he felt he wanted a year out.”

Earlier in the interview, and without mentioning any player specifically, Cleary noted that some of the player departures “would have been disappointing”.

The injuries, defections, and retirements will make a first return to the top-flight since 2016 all the more challenging.

“We've kind of known about this for the past eight or nine weeks, so while we've been doing our training and in-house matches, other guys have been there. We still have 14 of the 15 that beat Donegal available, we still have 20 of the 26 that togged out that day. It is not that the guts were torn completely out of the squad.”