DOWN’S DIVISION TWO title hopes suffered a setback when they lost Mark Poland to a freak injury moments before throw-in.
Poland was named at wing-forward against Roscommon but was a late withdrawal after he was hit in the face by a ball during the warm-up.
The Longstone man was taken to hospital for further examination on an eye injury, leaving Aidan Carr to take his place in the 1-17 to 0-15 defeat.
Down boss Jim McCorry said: “We lost Mark Poland in the warm-up, just before we got into the huddle. It was a bad injury and Mark had to go the hospital.
“Our thoughts are with him at the moment. It’s more important than winning the game, in the end.”
The injury forced Down into a late reshuffle as they tried to compensate for the missing Poland’s creative touch.
McCorry added: “Mark has been fantastic this year. He has been back to his old self again, deliverer of the ball, sets everything up on that inside left line. Great leader. So that interrupted us a wee bit.
He actually got hit right on the eye with the ball full force and we were concerned about the vision.
“The doctors were called in and assessed him straight away and we had to make an adjustment straight away.
“That probably upset us a wee bit, just the balance of the team and the adjustments to what we had tried in training.”
