Injury blow for Ireland as Michael Obafemi set for spell on sidelines

Michael Obafemi will not be part of the early stages of Mick McCarthy’s second coming as Ireland manager after it was yesterday confirmed that the 18-year-old will miss the rest of the season due to injury.

The Southampton striker suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury just 20 minutes into his comeback as a substitute in the 2-0 defeat at Arsenal last Sunday.

He had only just returned after two months out with a similar problem and Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl is hugely concerned by this latest setback, fearing it could potentially wreck his career.

“We have a big injury with Michael,” Hasenhuttl said yesterday.

“We took a long time to let him play again, we didn’t let him start.

“But it’s completely different from training to when you play in the Premier League, the intensity is different.

“It’s a big blow. Until the end of the season, he will not play.

The worst thing is for himself. A big injury, at this age when you want to play, you want to get experience, you want to make the next step in your development, it doesn’t help him a lot for the future.

“It’s a big problem for his career of playing professional football.

“We can find solutions but for him, it is a disaster.

“He was down, that’s for sure.

“We need to take him in our arms a little bit because for a young player it’s the worst that can happen.”

Obafemi has made eight appearances for Southampton and scored his first goal in the 3-1 win at Huddersfield in December.

Sunday’s setback came just days after he had put pen to paper on a new three-and-a-half-year contract at St Mary’s.

“I’ll always be thankful to the club for sticking by me, and I just want to show everyone what I’ve got,” he said then.

Sadly, he will not now get the chance to aid his side’s bid for Premier League survival and he will also certainly miss Ireland’s first two Euro 2020 qualifiers away to Gibraltar and at home to Georgia next month.

The June doubleheader away to Denmark and at home to Gibraltar will also probably come too soon — a headache McCarthy could certainly have done without.