*Diarmuid Ryan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE’s growing list of injuries now includes wing-back Diarmuid Ryan who is looking at a six week spell on the sidelines.
A back injury will rule the Cratloe man out for the remainder of the Allianz National Hurling, he missed their draw with Limerick on Sunday and will also be unavailable for selection in their final outing against Galway in Pearse Stadium, next weekend.
Medics in the Clare panel have had to treat the Mary Immaculate College student who has regularly been stretching his back during the county’s games so far this year in Cusack Park but once a problem was noticed, management took action.
Brian Lohan said the issue became apparent at training on Friday last, “He has trouble with his back, he is going to be out for a while. When we became aware of the injury, it was Friday night, he was training at the time but we pulled him at the time out of training straight away”.
Should his recovery go along the right track, Diarmuid will be back in action ahead of Clare’s Munster SHC tie away to Tipperary on April 24th.
The extent of injuries has frustrated Lohan, “It’s a decent performance against a very good opposition, a good bit of spirit in the group, we’re a little bit frustrated with the number of injuries we’re having at the moment and that is the way it is, hopefully we’ll improve from that display”.
When asked by The Clare Echo if there was any links or injuries to the amount of injuries sustained, the Shannon man said, “No. I know when you have so many injuries you would be saying is there something wrong or are we doing something that we shouldn’t be doing, a lot of them are breaks and contact type injuries rather than muscular injuries, it is a bit frustrating at the moment but it is what it is”.
Others on the injured list include Aidan McCarthy (broken ankle), Mark Rodgers (knee), Aron Shanagher (quad), Patrick O’Connor (ACL) along with David Reidy, Shane O’Donnell and Ian Galvin.