Mayo’s championship aspirations could be dealt a huge blow with speculation suggesting that star midfielder Aidan O’Shea has been ruled out for three months with a hamstring injury.
The Breaffy clubman has been named to start at midfield for Mayo’s National League semi-final with Kerry tomorrow, but various reports suggest that he has suffered a recurrence of an old hamstring injury and could be sidelined for a period ranging from six weeks to three months.
A report in the Irish Examiner yesterday suggested that O’Shea could be out of action for six weeks, while a similar article in the Belfast Telegraph suggested a gloomier prognosis, speculating that he will be sidelined for three months, which would see him miss out Mayo’s entire Connacht championship campaign.
Barry Moran is set to replace O’Shea in the Mayo XV to face Kerry tomorrow, but there has been no official confirmation of that switch as of yet. A query was made about O’Shea’s wellbeing to the official Mayo GAA Twitter account overnight and was met with the response that reports of O’Shea’s injury are merely speculation at this stage.
If Mayo are to lose O’Shea for an extended period, it would be a huge blow for James Horan’s side as he has been in sterling form of late and delivered massive performances against both Dublin and Kerry in recent weeks.
O’Shea has offered only glimpses of his huge potential in his brief inter-county career to date, but he appears to have significantly trimmed down this season and when fit, would be one of the first names on Horan’s team sheet.
In the shorter-term, his absence makes the already ominous task of beating Kerry in tomorrow’s NFL semi-final all the more difficult, particularly when you have a quick gander at the personnel Jack O’Connor was able to call on for the showdown in headquarters.
