Kerry injury boost as Diarmuid O'Connor takes part in full training session

ON THE MEND: Diarmuid O’Connor participated in the full Kerry training session on Saturday afternoon. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Diarmuid O’Connor participated in the full Kerry training session on Saturday afternoon, increasing hopes that the midfielder will make his return from injury in next weekend’s All-Ireland SFC final against Donegal.

Inside forward Paul Geaney (shoulder) also took full part in Saturday’s session, with Tom O’Sullivan (calf) still not fully back, manager Jack O’Connor confirmed at the county’s All-Ireland final media event.

After a powerful start to the spring, midfielder O’Connor has endured an injury-plagued campaign since first hurting his shoulder during the Round 6 League win at home to Armagh in mid-March.

His latest setback was at the beginning of the preliminary quarter-final win over Cavan four weeks ago, where he lasted just three minutes before having to withdraw. He has not featured since.

Geaney was listed on the matchday panel for both the All-Ireland quarter-final and semi-final victories but was not used on either occasion, while defender O’Sullivan limped out of the quarter-final win over Armagh when picking up a first-half calf injury.

“Paul and Diarmuid trained fully today, and there are a couple more sessions to go, so that's promising,” Jack said on Saturday afternoon.

“Most fellas are back doing some training in some shape or form, which is good. Tom O'Sullivan isn't back fully yet, he's doing bits and pieces, so we'd hope he'd train next week. Outside of that we are not too bad.

“The season is so intense it is just very tricky deal with injuries because you don't really have that much time to get the injury right and then sometimes you are kinda half afraid to throw them into the maelstrom of a game without having done some intense training, so it can be tricky yeah with the tightness of the season.”