THERE WAS A positive end to a forgettable weekend for the Tipperary hurlers last night with confirmation that All-Star corner-back Cathal Barrett has avoided cruciate knee ligament damage.
Barrett, 23, went down in agony and clutching his left knee after contesting an aerial ball with Cork sub Luke O’Farrell in the 62nd minute of Sunday’s defeat to the Rebels.
He was replaced by Alan Flynn soon after but, while a stretcher had been called for, Barrett was able to walk gingerly off the pitch.
His left leg was immediately placed in a protective brace and while Tipp feared the worst, the outlook is far better than had been expected.
The Holycross-Ballycahill clubman was scanned yesterday and although a cruciate injury has been ruled out, he’s still facing up to six weeks out.
Barrett is a doubt for Tipperary’s first qualifier game on the first weekend in July but, providing the Premier County safely vault that first hurdle, he should be fully fit for the remainder of the season.
Provided there are no further injury setbacks for Tipp, manager Michael Ryan should be picking from almost a full deck for the team’s next outing.
Donagh Maher, Michael Cahill and Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher all missed the Cork game with hamstring problems — but will have recovered in time for their first qualifier game.
That game might come too soon for Barrett but he’ll be thankful that his knee injury isn’t a season-ending one.
Another fella who wasted his talent. Similarly to anthony stokes. Also stephen ireland, those 3 should have backboned the irish team for the last 10 years.
@Gareth Ward: not sure on Stokes i think he might have been found out early in his career that he was below average but the other 2 ya
@Wheresmyjumper: Maybe ya, but he had the talent as a young lad and just didn’t work hard enough at it! The other 2 though, imagine if they were our midfield partnership for the last 12 years!
@Gareth Ward:
We achieved more with wheels in midfield than we ever could of with Gibson or Ireland, Glenn is a pro who wanted to play . Gibson never gave it his all to any team he played for. How Stephen Ireland was treated by both Man City and the FAI is a totally different story . Stephen Ireland could of achieved a lot more in the game and I’ve a lot of sympathy for him and his story . Gibson however I wouldn’t trust him to hand out the jerseys and has never looked like a player who cared about anything except for a gargle.
@Shane Lad: Ya Whelan has been grand like when we’ve had no one else. But what im saying is if Gibson had delivered on his potential he would have been so much better than Whelan
@Gareth Ward:”grand when we had no one else” that’s harsh, whelan a fantastic pro put a few them boys to shame, it’s not as if we never had any other options in midfeild either and we had throw poor Glenn there he was there on merit.
@Gareth Ward: Harsh on Warren. He’s only 21.
@Wheresmyjumper: He wasn’t found out, he was fond of the drink which most young Irish players were back then.
A tented lad on his day but wasted his career I’m afraid
We achieved more with wheels in midfield over the last few years than we ever would of with Ireland or Gibson. Glenn is a pro who wants to play . I’ve a lot of sympathy for Stephen Ireland and his story. The way he was treated by city and the FAI was disgusting and he could of achieved a lot more in the game . As for Gibson, he’s never given his all to any team he’s been in because he doesn’t care.
@Shane Lad: I would say taking everything Stephen Ireland says as gospel truth is very dangerous. There’s a reason his career went the way it did after packing in Ireland and then City- perceived “disgusting” treatment with both can’t have applied.
@Shane Lad: “The way he was treated by city and the FAI was disgusting ”
Yes because what happened with Stephen Ireland was everyone elses fault but him, pull the other one Shane.