Mercy Mounthawk sweating on fitness of Paddy Lane ahead of Corn Uí Mhuirí Final

Top-scorer and captain Lane is currently in a precautionary protective boot while midfielder Ben Murphy is also a doubt for next weekend's decider. 

INJURY DOUBT: Paddy Lane is a doubt for the Corn Uí Mhuirí Final.

Reigning kingpins Mercy Mounthawk are sweating on the fitness of top scorer and captain Paddy Lane in advance of next weekend’s Munster Colleges SFC (Corn Uí Mhuirí) Final against fellow Kerry school, St Brendan’s Killarney.

The 18-year-old Austin Stacks attacker, who hit 1-11 in last Saturday’s facile semi-final victory over Hamilton HS of Bandon, picked up an ankle injury while training with the Kerry under-20s on Tuesday night, and is currently in a precautionary protective boot.

The early prognosis after an x-ray is positive but, speaking at a pre-final press conference on Friday, Mercy Mounthawk manager Aidan O’Shea understands that there remains only a week until the eagerly-awaited final at Lewis Road next Saturday (12 noon).

“Paddy got injured there on Tuesday night, he got an x-ray on it, on Wednesday we were very worried, to be honest, but the x-ray came back clear. Obviously he still has an injury, a kind of bony bruising, he’s trying to stay off it now as much as possible,” he said.

“We’re just going to see if it will settle down for him. He obviously won’t be able to do a whole pile, but the best-case scenario is that it settles down for him, and he will be able to play.”

Lane, who has hit a sensational 7-38 in five Corn Uí Mhuirí matches this season, is not the only worry for the Mounthawk side. Midfielder Ben Murphy, who forms a formidable engine room partnership with Daniel Kirby, is troubled by a back problem since the semi-final.

“Ben has an injury after an incident the last day, his lower back is at him, so he hasn’t been able to train now for the week. He couldn’t train with the Kerry 20s, and he couldn’t train with us either. Again we’re just hoping it settles down, and we know we have eight more days.

“We’re hoping to get Ben back on the field next Wednesday, but Paddy definitely won’t be back on the field next Wednesday. If we got him for a kick-around on the Friday night beforehand, we would be delighted with that. He is going to do everything that he can to be right.”

Opponents St Brendan’s expect to have a full-strength squad at their disposal.