CORK ARE SET to plan without attacker Ciaran Sheehan and the defensive duo of Tomás Clancy and Kevin Crowley due to injuries for the rest of their 2020 campaign.
Liam O’Donovan, who emerged as a bright prospect at wing-back last summer, is already out as a long-term absentee due to a cruciate injury.
The Rebels are set to resume their league campaign on Saturday when they meet Louth in a Division 3 clash as they build up to a Munster semi-final against Kerry on Sunday 8 November.
The absentees are a setback for Cork, particularly in the case of 2010 All-Ireland winner Sheehan who only rejoined the setup earlier this year after moving home from Australia but has endured a luckless run on the injury front.
Manager Ronan McCarthy confirmed the extent of their absentees this evening.
“Obviously you’re aware of Liam O’Donovan who’s long-term out. Tomás Clancy Fermoy, it looks like Christmas before he’s back. He was stretchered off in a club championship game. He’s a very bad calf tear and some Achilles damage. Christmas should get him back up and running.
“Kevin Crowley, at this stage his shoulder, a knock in a club championship game, he’s had issues with his shoulder so he’ll need a procedure on that so that’ll rule him out in the short term for us.
“And Ciaran Sheehan had a minor procedure on his knee last week so that’ll mean he’ll have no part to play in league or championship for us this year. Tomás, in one sense, it was clear-cut for him in that he had no chance one the extent of the injury was seen. I suppose it could be worse, it could be longer term than it is.
“Ciaran was trying to manage a knee issue and was doing it. But what happens is you get to a point where, you are only playing bits and pieces of matches, you are only training, maybe, a quarter of the time and at some stage you have to make a call on it.
“We made the call and he is happy with the procedure, it is not a major procedure. Anything at all at this point, you are looking at four to six weeks, but what it does is tie up an ongoing issue. Hopefully, we will have him in good shape, ready for the new season, if that ever happens.”
The news is more promising on Sean White and Sean Powter coming back into the frame for Cork selection.
“Sean White came back in with us and was fine, was training. He nicked his hamstring in a club hurling championship game for Clonakilty. We expect him back this week. He should, we hope, train tomorrow (Wednesday). Certainly, join in a lot of the session.
“Sean Powter was back in with us and was training very well. He gave his a small little nick, as well. Both players are players with a history of hamstring trouble and you are obviously going to be cautious with them. As I say, Sean White should be back training fully this week at some stage. Powter could be a bit longer than that, but he has just started back running. We’ll see how we progress with him, but given his history over the last three years, we’ll take it cautiously.”
Cork have added a few youngsters to their setup from successful recent U20 teams.
“The first week we were back which was the week of the 14th, we had only six or seven of players who were out of (club) championship and on the panel before lockdown. So we brought in some U20 players who had done well in the club championship. Niall Hartnett, Jack McCarthy from Carrigaline, Blake Murphy’s been with us, Daniel O’Mahony from Knocknagree.
“A young lad there Gavin Creedon, a goalkeeper from Kilshannig has come in. So we’ve brought players in. We weren’t expecting players back last week. Up to the start of last week we’d 16 players who were supposed to be playing county finals last weekend. So what has happened is we’ve had a groundswell of numbers last week. We’ll review that over the coming days. We’ll obviously have to tighten that down a bit. We’ve big numbers this week.”
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