Kerry quartet face lengthy lay-offs
By Tony Leen
Up to four of Kerry’s front line players will miss the majority of next year’s Allianz Football League after undergoing serious off-season surgery.
Paul Geaney, Anthony Maher, Mikey Geaney and Peter Crowley have all had, or are facing, operations, while a decision is yet to be made on James O’Donoghue’s troublesome shoulder problem.
Dingle attacker Paul Geaney has already had back surgery since the All-Ireland final and is now facing a shoulder operation. Peter Crowley will shortly have a shoulder operation too, while Anthony Maher — hoping to pick up his first All Star tonight — will be out for a number of months after undergoing hip surgery.
All three are expected to be out of action until March at the earliest, ruling them out of the majority of the Kingdom’s National League Division 1 programme, which kicks off on January 30th with a visit to All-Ireland champions, Dublin. Dingle’s Mikey Geaney has already had back surgery, and should be back for the League.
Kerry management are adopting a wait-and-see approach on James O’Donoghue. The Legion man plays a Kerry SFC final on Sunday against South Kerry, and with a victory for the Killarney club, could be installed as Kerry captain for 2016. Victory on Sunday would also mean Legion enter the Munster Club SFC championship, muddying the waters further in terms of O’Donoghue’s potential surgery and rehab. However, the Legion man has had no major issues with the shoulder since falling awkwardly on it in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Kildare.
The absence of Paul and Mikey Geaney would also seriously undermine Dingle’s efforts in the Munster SFC Club championship. They would represent Kerry if Legion fail to win Sunday’s county final.
In his four years in charge, Eamonn Fitzmaurice has yet to have anything close to a full deck going into the NFL and will use the McGrath Cup to blood some younger talent - if the pre-season competition proceeds that is. The Munster Council met last night with all counties to establish their interest in the secondary competitions and discuss possible tweaking of the format.
Kerry will resume training next month and travel on a winter holiday to Miami and Orlando over the Christmas holiday period.
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