MAYO FACE AN anxious wait to discover the extent of the knee injury that forced Colm Boyle off in their loss to Dublin at Elvery’s MacHale Park.
Boyle went down holding this knee as he attempted to stop a Dublin attack near the end of the first-half.
The four-time All-Star received treatment on the field and attempted to play on, but was clearly struggling as the half came to a close.
For their final score of the opening period, Dublin switched the play to the right wing for James McCarthy to breeze past a hobbling Boyle, who was still feeling the effects of the injury. He was replaced by Lee Keegan at half-time.
“The boys (medical team) are down there with him now,” said manager James Horan.
“He is sore. I don’t know exactly what it is but he got a bad knock on his knee, for sure.
“We’ll see how that is,” he added.
The best case scenario is he took a bang on the knee, while worst case is ligament damage caused by a non-contact injury.
The prognosis on Boyle is likely to become clear in the coming days as he’s evaluated by Mayo’s medical team.
On a positive note for Mayo, Keegan made his first appearance of 2020 while Aidan O’Shea enjoyed his first start of the campaign.
Keegan had a few of his typical forays forward and had a busy time tracking Ciaran Kilkenny, while O’Shea started very well before fading in the second-half.
“Even when he came on against Donegal last week, he is a very important player for us and has been for a decade now,” said Horan of the Breaffy midfielder.
“It was good to get a little bit more time in his legs and to get Leeroy on as well. A lot of guys close to being an option to start so that is good.”
Horan also paid tribute to young defender Oisin Mullin, who gave a mature performance in his second start for the county.
Mullin has been on the radar of Aussie Rules scouts and took part in the AFL Combine in UCD in December. He helped his club Kilmaine to Connacht junior glory in 2019 and was a mainstay for the Mayo U20s last summer.
The 19-year-old kept Kilkenny on a tight leash in the opening 35 minutes and was described as “a special player” by his manager afterwards.
“You never know how some young lads come in. His calibre has been well documented for a few years now.
“Tonight you saw him growing into the game. He is a special player for sure.”
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