Roscommon senior football manager Anthony Cunningham has said that players getting injured who just returned to the GAA after lockdown, will be the biggest problem coaches at county level will have this season.
Speaking on the OTB panel alongside fellow senior football managers, Terry Hyland of Leitrim and John Maughan of Offaly, all three men agreed how the issue of player injuries is far worse this season and will be a major issue when inter-county players return in September.
With a four-month shutdown from GAA matches, it was John Maughan who first brought up on the Saturday panel how players returning to matches for the first time in months are far more likely to get injured. Something he first noticed with his son.
“I watched my son Johnny train in isolation with two or three other lads from Castlebar Mitchel’s at a gym that we set up at the back of my house. I noticed them getting bigger and stronger over the lockdown.
“Unfortunately, in Castlebar Mitchel’s case including my own son, he tore his hamstring when he went back, and I think that is a common occurrence right around the country.
“There a lot of players returning after the lockdown, picking up soft tissue injuries and a lot of hamstring injuries. My son was up last night in Hyde Park playing a challenge game against Clan Na Gael and after five minutes, having recuperated for the previous five weeks, he tore his hamstring again.”
Roscommon manager Anthony Cunningham noted that while he doesn’t feel inter-county players will be at a disadvantage when they return to training in September, he does feel that he could lose some important players due to injuring.
“The biggest problem is, if a player pulls a hamstring the week before they play for Roscommon. You saw it in the professional game over the last two weeks. The Arsenal players pulling up with injuries. So that’s a big worry.
“A player that has worked the whole year long and you come to October and he pulls a hamstring. He’s not going to get a second bit of the cherry.”
Leitrim manager Terry Hyland said he has no problem with players training with their clubs but agreed with the injury issues citing that seven players from one club in Cavan pulled up with hamstring injuries.
“I don’t have any problem with it. Once lads are playing football and the players come back to you with regards to injures. One of our lads broke his thumb last week in a challenge game so this is the kind of thing you pick up and need to control.
“I heard last week in a club in Cavan, they had seven players lost in one weekend due to injuries. Some maybe only a couple of weeks out but some could be out for six or seven weeks. It’s difficult for all inter-county people to manage.”
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