Ruairí Keating out for the rest of Cork City's season with ruptured Achillies

“You’re not going to get back with a ruptured Achillies in anything less than six to nine months," said manager Tim Clancy on Wednesday.

Wed, 09 Apr, 2025 - 17:53

Andrew Horgan

Cork City striker Ruairí Keating is set to miss the rest of the season with a ruptured Achillies with manager Tim Clancy confirming he will be out of action for between six to nine months.

Keating suffered the injury in the final minutes of City’s 2-1 loss away to Derry City on Friday night and scans have since revealed the severity of issue which will require surgery in the near future.

Speaking on ahead of City’s clash with St Patrick’s Athletic at Turner’s Cross, Clancy also hinted that the artificial surface at the Brandywell may have contributed to the injury, and he believes it’s something the League of Ireland need to look into.

“Keats has ruptured his Achillies,” said Clancy.

“It’s a really bad one for us. He was looking sharp; he was doing extra work… “You’re not going to get back with a ruptured Achillies in anything less than six to nine months. I think that’s very, very hopeful.

“I’ve done that injury myself; it’s the furthest part of the body away from the heart which pumps blood that actually repairs fibres and that so it’s probably the worst part of the body to damage because the healing process takes that little bit longer.

“It’s a serious injury so it’s important we get the right treatments for Keats and start that slow recovery back.

“I’ve never had a period where we have had so many significant injuries in such a short space of time to players all in key positions.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now; there’s nothing really anyone could have done beforehand to try and avoid the injury, maybe the pitch, I don’t know.

“There’s a lot of talk about serious injuries happening at the Brandywell pitch, I know Ruaidhrí Higgins was very outspoken about how poor the pitch was up there during his tenure.

“Some Sligo players have had bad injuries (there) and other clubs as well so before someone else picks up a serious, serious injury, I think the league need to look at that pitch.

“There seems to be an excessive amount of injuries on Derry’s astro, there seems to be a lot of them that are serious injuries, maybe that’s coincidental, I don’t know.”

Clancy also confirmed that Evan McLaughlin will be in the squad to face Pats while Harry Nevin and the experienced Greg Bolger are “very, very close” to a return.

Malik Dijksteel remains out, as does striker Seani Maguire, who is back running on the training ground and could return to full training in three weeks’ time.

Talented young striker David Dunne appears to be closing in on a move to Monaco but the City boss admitted a number of clubs are chasing his services.

"I have no idea about David's situation. There's a lot of clubs interested, I did read some sort of article that he may be going to Monaco but I actually don't know.

"He's not under contract with us so it's just a compensation package between the clubs so I actually have no idea. It's David's decision and his family's decision, and his representative.

"We can't turn down offers for players that aren't under contract. I think David was offered a good contract with us but because of the Brexit situation he can leave.

"Monaco can offer him a contract the exact same day we can and the last time I looked out my window in Cork it's not as nice as Monaco!"

Clancy also added that he remains in talks with a couple of candidates to fill the vacant assistant manager role at the club.

It was announced back in March that James Hamill, who initially stepped in as Clancy’s number two following Richie Holland’s departure, had also left the role to return home to Scotland for family reasons.

“We will probably do a bit more talking this week on a couple of people, we will see if they are interested.

“We have had a couple of discussions so far but it’s not a major panic. For myself, I need people around me that I trust.

“In Hamo I had that 100% so it’s making sure that anybody we do have in the building, they’re here for the right reasons and not to cause problems, unlike previous."

Greg Bolger had been linked with the role but Clancy insisted that he will continue to serve in his current player coach role.

"Greg this season is a player coach at the club. He has got a lot of experience, he knows this level really well and only for the fact that he is injured at the minute he is doing a lot more shouting, I wouldn't mind him doing his shouting out on the pitch.

"But no, he's also apart of the coaching staff here this season and we will be bringing someone else in then as the assistant and Greg will develop that role this year and we will see how he feels at the end of the season."