O’Brien adds to Tipp’s injury woe

By Shane Brophy

The injury curse which has beset the Tipperary senior football squad continues with the news that Steven O’Brien is set to miss at least the next three games, starting with Antrim at FBD Semple Stadium this Saturday evening at 6.00pm.

The Ballina clubman, who assumed the role of captain following the season-ending injury to Conor Sweeney, suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury in the defeat to Cavan two weeks ago and is set to be ruled out for between 4-6 weeks.

It’s another huge blow for Tipperary as they enter a key phase of the league with upcoming games against fellow strugglers Antrim and Longford, which will go a long way to determining the relegation spots come the end of the campaign.

Mikey O’Shea also cried off during the Cavan game with a head injury and is currently undergoing concussion protocols, as is Conor Cadell, and a decision as to their available will be made later in the week, while Conal Kennedy remains out with a leg injury.

However, there is some hopeful news on the injury front with midfielder Paudie Feehan set to be available for selection after recovering from a back injury.

Next Saturday evening is a must-win game for Tipperary against an Antrim side that have also started with two defeats to Offaly and Down respectively. However, they performed well against Down and were four points to the good going into the closing stages but were unable to hold on.

With Sweeney and O’Brien ruled out, it means Tipperary are likely to have to go back to the drawing board in terms of their gameplan which had been centred around direct ball into a powerful three-man full forward line, including Sean O’Connor.

When Tipperary started slowly in last years division 4 campaign and turned things around, they changed the manner of their play mid-stream so they know they can do it but this is a much higher level to get it to work.

Tipp play well with a little bit of freedom and off the cuff football and that might be a good place to start to get the league campaign off and running in earnest.