Cork wait on Rob Downey as duo ruled out for four to six weeks

Barry Walsh will be available to face Clare on Sunday while Dáire O'Leary remains sidelined. Ciarán Joyce underwent surgery on his ACL earlier this week

Cork's Darragh Fitzgibbon will be out of action for between four and six weeks after undergoing surgery for appendicitis. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Cork hurlers Darragh Fitzgibbon and Robbie O’Flynn will be out of action for between four and six weeks, manager Ben O’Connor confirmed on Wednesday afternoon, while Rob Downey may not be risked for this Sunday's de facto Munster semi-final as he has not progressed beyond straight-line running at training.

A case of appendicitis saw Fitzgibbon undergo surgery over the weekend, with his recovery timeline set at a worst-case scenario of six weeks.

That takes the three-time All-Star out of the equation for the remainder of the Munster championship, and an All-Ireland quarter-final were Cork to wind up in one, but would put him in the frame for any Cork involvement in the All-Ireland semi-final on July 4/5.

“The doctors have told Darragh four to six weeks, depending on his recovery,” Cork manager O'Connor told the Irish Examiner.

“We’ll be hoping for the shorter end of that timeframe. We wouldn’t want to be risking him until it would come to knockout championship. There is no point risking him when it isn’t knockout. But that’ll be the doctor’s call. We’ve no say in that.

“If they think he’s okay in four weeks’ time, he’s okay in four weeks’ time. And if they say it is six weeks, well then, it is six weeks.

“This could have happened the night before a knockout game, so you have to take some positive out of it, and the positive we’re taking out of it is that it’s not knockout championship yet in the season, so we’ll hopefully have him back for knockout championship all going well.” 

Robbie O’Flynn, used off the bench in the round-robin wins over Limerick and Waterford, is another who might be sidelined until All-Ireland semi-finals weekend, should Cork succeed in reaching the last four for a third successive summer.

Robert Downey went of injured during Cork's Muntser SHC victory over Limerick. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

“Robbie hurt his hamstring with about two minutes to go in the Waterford match. A lot of people didn’t realise it at the time, and I didn’t even realise it until we went back for a bite to eat after and I saw him limping and strapped up.

“He went for a scan on his hamstring the Monday after the Waterford game and the results said four to six weeks recovery. Robbie had been getting a good run of it this year, he had no injuries.

“He’ll be scanned again after two to three weeks to see how he is coming along. That four-to-six-week timeframe, it could be a bit shorter or it could be a bit longer, just depends on his recovery.” 

Centre-back Rob Downey, who limped out of the Limerick victory in injury-time with an Achilles problem, has returned to training. How he responds to increased load at Thursday's training session will determine whether he is involved for Sunday’s visit of Clare.

“He done a bit on Tuesday night, and the boys were happy with him, but whether that’s happy he didn’t do any turning or twisting, he did straight line running. He’s going to do a bit more on Thursday night, and we’ll see how he gets on.

“It is more positive than it was a week or 10 days ago, but whether he’ll have enough done to tog out at the weekend, we’ll know more tomorrow night.” 

To miss a second game in succession would leave Downey shy of championship sharpness going into either a Munster decider or All-Ireland quarter-final. Against that, the Cork manager is only too keenly aware that if he returns his No.6 before he's ready, the repercussions could stretch to late June and beyond.

“We don’t want to rush him because if he hurts it again, it could be six or eight weeks. If the physios don’t think he’s good enough to line up this weekend, we’ll just sit and wait. He’s after being out for this long now, another couple of weeks isn’t going to kill us.” 

Barry Walsh is available for selection against Clare, with the manager re-emphasising that it was not an injury that kept him out of the Waterford win a fortnight ago, but management of his game load.

Dáire O’Leary remains sidelined with a foot injury. Ciarán Joyce, meanwhile, underwent surgery on his ruptured ACL earlier this week.