DUBLIN LIFTED THE Leinster U21 title last night in Portlaoise but have injury worries over senior figures Cormac Costello and Shane Carthy in the wake of that game.
Costello limped off with ten minutes left with a calf injury while in the dying moments of the game Carthy, who received the man-of-the-match award, injured his ankle in a goalmouth scramble.
“Shane went over on his ankle there”, revealed manager Dessie Farrell afterwards. “We’re hoping it’s not too serious. He’s being reviewed by the medical team now. Cormac did his calf, I’m not sure how he’ll be in two weeks time.
“Shane played very good. He’s a very capable midfielder and we were delighted with his performance.”
Dublin now go forward to the All-Ireland semi-final stage on April 19th against the Ulster champions, Cavan or Donegal.
In better news Emmet Ó Conghaile continued his comeback from injury by being introduced in the closing stages of the victory over Meath.
St Vincent’s All-Ireland club winner Gavin Burke is another useful option after his club commitments concluded and he struck a brace of points from the bench. Farrell still believes there is scope for improvement in Dublin’s play.
“Emmet is still coming on. But we have a couple of weeks now and hopefully we’ll get a bit of work into him. That 20 minutes or so should bring him on.
“It was great to have that strength in depth but it still didn’t necessarily fix the problems. We were sloppy.”
Dublin continue to be without long-term injury victim Ciaran Kilkenny yet he remains involved with their panel.
“He’s very much part of it. Obviously we’d huge sympathy for Ciaran and his situation. But he’s still a valuable member of our squad.”
