MAYO FORWARD CILLIAN O’Connor has admitted that he is set to miss out on the Connacht final against London but remains hopeful of featuring in this year’s championship as he continues his recovery from a shoulder injury.
O’Connor suffered the injury in a club game for Ballintubber in late May after previously damaging the shoulder last September, and he is expecting to undergo an operation before the end of the year.
“It’s a slow process but it’s improving. I dislocated it originally a week after the All-Ireland final in a club game. And on May 25th, I dislocated it again in a club game against Claremorris.
“It was just a tackle and whatever angle I came in at, it just popped out of its socket. The first time I was in a sling for 4-6 weeks and hoped that the ligaments would tighten themselves so it becomes sufficiently strong enough to come back and play.
“I’ll probably be looking at an operation in the off season this year. But hopefully I’ll be able to play football again this year. I’m back doing light running, A small bit of ball skills and the last fortnight I’ve been able to go back kicking again.
” The doctor I keep put pressure on him to tell me what the time frame is. But we do a strength assessment every weekend to see how it’s improving because he reckons it’s different for everybody. At the moment we’re seeing slight improvements in the strength of it.
“July 21st might come too soon. If we were to get through that game, I’d hopefully be back for a potential game after that.”
Cillian O’Connor
INPHO/James Crombie
O’Connor has described the rehab as ‘boring’ and also revealed that he feared initially that he had suffered a season-ending injury.
He has only lined out for his county five times this year – in three senior league games, in the Connacht quarter-final win over Galway and the Connacht U21 championship loss to Galway.
“It’s not great craic. It’s quite boring at times. But if that’s what they reckon will improve it, I don’t mind doing it.
“When I got confirmation in the hospital (that it was dislocated), I kind of feared for the season. I was asking everybody about time frames who had the same injury. The doctor says it depends differently for people.
“It was very disappointing to hear the pop again when it happened. I just want to get it right this time and nail it so it doesn’t become an ongoing thing or a tag that I’ve a bad shoulder.”
