REPUBLIC OF IRELAND star Denise O’Sullivan has returned to action after a recent knee injury.
The Cork centurion missed Ireland’s recent Euro 2025 qualifier double-header defeat to Sweden, but played a full game for her club, North Carolina Courage, over the weekend.
O’Sullivan returned to captain the Courage in their 1-0 defeat to Portland Thorns in the NWSL. She started and played the 90-plus minutes at Providence Park on Saturday, seeing yellow in the 66th minute for a bruising challenge.
The midfield maestro sustained a knee injury in a 1-0 loss to Kansas City Current on 12 May. She appeared to turn awkwardly out of contact and went down clutching her right knee. She was visibly in pain as she received treatment on the field before limping off and later posting photographs on social media with her knee in a brace.
O’Sullivan was included in Eileen Gleeson’s squad for the Sweden games with the Irish head coach “feeling very positive” about her involvement at the squad announcement.
“The injury is a lot more minor than initially thought — at the most a Grade 1 MCL knee injury,” Gleeson told reporters.
O’Sullivan travelled to Dublin and followed a modified training programme, but the first game at the Aviva Stadium came too soon for her. She watched on at Lansdowne Road as her side fell to a 3-0 defeat and was subsequently ruled out of the return tie in Stockholm last Tuesday.
A bump in the road. Long journey ahead. Sorry I couldn’t take part in these important games, I’m gutted. For now I’ll be heading home to get fit and ready for July , See you then ☘️💚 pic.twitter.com/NOhmZGd54X
— Denise O'Sullivan (@OSullivanDenise) June 1, 2024
“A bump in the road. Long journey ahead,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, as she returned to her North Carolina base prematurely.
“Sorry I couldn’t take part in these important games, I’m gutted. For now I’ll be heading home to get fit and ready for July. See you then.”
After their most recent 1-0 defeat in Sweden, Ireland round out the Group of Death away to England on 12 July and at home to France on 16 July.
The latter will be a homecoming for O’Sullivan and the Cork contingent, with the Girls In Green due to line out at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“Best news ever,” she reacted. “See you all July 16th.”
