Paul Mannion played played through the pain barrier to lead to Crokes to victory
Kilmacud Crokes joint-manager Robbie Brennan admitted that Paul Mannion was playing “on one leg” when he fired the club to Dublin SFC success.
All-Star Mannion clutched his hamstring in the opening minutes but played through the pain and scored 1-6 all from play.
It was his 57th minute goal that ultimately killed off Kevin McManamon’s St Jude’s who battled bravely throughout.
Brennan said Mannion has a back/hamstring problem and was troubled throughout. “He’s had a niggle, a kind of a back injury and it flared up there in the first 10 or 15 minutes with the hamstring,” said Brennan. “So he did that on one leg — and you know what he’s like on two legs!
“We were saying before that it was going to be brilliant from Paul or it was going to be tight. He was struggling with the hamstring so we really weren’t sure how it would play out.
For him to pull that out of the bag was just incredible. But everyone has seen what he’s capable of all year. Thank God he did it again today.
Mannion looks a shoo-in for back-to-back All-Stars but the injury could affect his participation in the Leinster club championship. Crokes return to action on Sunday week against Meath champions St Peter’s, Dunboyne.
Ex-Wicklow boss Johnny Magee, the other Crokes joint manager, said: “Paul is a really good footballer, he’s had a serious year for Dublin. He always puts in a big shift. For us, we want him close to the goal and look at the return we got from him.”
