MEATH’S STAR MIDFIELDER Conor Gillespie will miss the rest of the 2014 championship after it’s emerged that he has suffered a cruciate ligament injury.
The 24-year-old is the second key Meath player to be ruled out for the entire season through the same injury, after Eamon Wallace too injured his cruciate ligament in March.
The GAA’s official website confirmed this afternoon, via a spokesman for Meath GAA, that Gillespie picked up the injury during a training session with Mick O’Dowd’s panel on Sunday.
Gillespie had already missed much of the county’s preseason this year, plus the entire league campaign. After first missing out through his club commitments (his club Summerhill won the Meath senior championship), he was then hampered by niggling knee and shoulder injuries which he had only recently recovered from.
Meath manager Mick O’Dowd had already lost Brian Meade for much of the past season after he also underwent surgery on his cruciate ligament injury. It’s unclear when Meade will next be available for the county.
O’Dowd is now likely to be forced in to an entirely new midfield partnership ahead of Sunday’s championship opener with Carlow. Going on league selections former full back Brian Menton, former full forward Shane O’Rourke and Andrew Tormey are the standout contenders.
Gillespie made his Meath senior debut in 2012 against Wicklow, at midfield alongside Brian Meade.
Since then he’s gone on to nail down the Meath number 8 jersey, the question now is – who will fill it this summer?
