Footballers hit by spate of big injuries as Dubliner declares for Offaly

ALREADY coming to grips with the departure of Cillian Bourke to the Australian Football League, Offaly senior footballers' prospects have been hit with injuries to a couple of their most influential players.

Goalkeeper Paddy Dunican and centre half forward Cathal Flynn are set to miss the National Football League Division 2 campaign as they recover from long term injuries. Defensive lynchpin John Furlong and attacking ace Dylan Hyland will also miss some of the early league action and and this greatly damages their prospects of staying up – they are at home to Louth in an absolutely crunch league opener on January 25.

Shamrocks man, Dunican is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a cruciate operation but his target is championship rather than league.

Offaly managers Declan Kelly and Mickey Harte knew for some time that Flynn would be gone for a few months and he finally got a shoulder operation this week. The brilliant Ferbane forward was outstanding last year but played most of the season with an injured shoulder and this had to be dealt with.

Furlong's absence with a knee injury is an unanticipated blow. He limped off early in Tullamore's Leinster club defeat by Ballyboden St Enda's and while it is not a cruciate injury and does not require an operation, it will take extensive rehab to get right and he is likely to miss the early rounds at any rate.

Declan Kelly is hopeful that both him and Dylan Hyland will be able to feature later in the campaign.

Hyland has an osteitis pubis injury that needs rest and rehab work. The injury is a common one for footballers, causes groin pain and affects their ability to run freely. Hyland has been carrying it for some time, playing through the pain barrier with Raheen in the Intermediate Football Championship before getting a scan some weeks ago.

The recovery from this varies and management expect that he will be able to play some league games but can't pinpoint a date.

It is an injury that has affected a few Offaly footballers. John Furlong had it a couple of years ago while Keith O'Neill and Kyle Higgins have also been dealing with it. O'Neill is flying at the moment but the injury greatly restricted Higgins' season and he could only come on as a sub in the Ferbane's Senior Football Championship final defeat by Tullamore. He has got an injection on it and is also likely to miss early league action but is working hard to get fit – Higgins performed very well for Offaly early on last season and they need his presence in the midfield zone.

Offaly get their season underway next Saturday with a trip to Eire Og in Carlow to face Carlow in the first round of the O'Byrne Cup.

Their panel will include a new addition in Dubliner, Ciaran Murphy who has declared for Offaly under the parentage rule – his mother is from Bracknagh. Murphy plays with the Skerries Harps club and was given his opportunity after informing Offaly of his interest. He played in a pre-Christmas charity match where Offaly lost to Mayo, scoring a couple of points and is an accurate forward.

It remains to be seen if Murphy will make the grade but the O'Byrne Cup is an ideal place for seeing more of him.

Paddy Dunican's absence creates an opportunity for someone else to stake a claim for the number one jersey and at the moment, Offaly have three goalkeepers on the panel: Shamrocks' Sean O'Toole, Ferbane's Adam Nugent and Bracknagh's Conor Melia.

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Cillian Bourke is the big absentee from last year's panel while Morgan Tynan and Diarmuid Finneran (Ballinagar), Aaron Kellaghan (Rhode) and Oisin Keenan-Martin (Tullamore) are among the players not there this year. Newcomers include Harry Plunkett (Tullamore), Nathan Poland (Erin Rovers), Conor Dunican, Cian Johnson and Darragh Flynn (Ferbane), Adam Joyce (Ballinagar), Harry Goulding and Kalem Bryan (Edenderry) and Eoin Dunne (Clodiagh Gaels).

The winners of Offaly and Carlow play Westmeath or Meath on Wednsday, January 7 while the losers will play the losers of Wexford and Kildare on the same night.