Mark O’Sullivan stays at home with pregnant wife as Cork City travel for Europa League tie
Cork City will be without Mark O’Sullivan for the daunting second leg of their Europa League tie against Progres Niederkorn in Luxembourg tomorrow, the striker having remained at home to be with his wife who is expecting a baby.
“It was something I was aware of when Marky came back, to be honest,” said City Head Coach John Cotter at his pre-match press conference in the Municipal Stadium in Differdange today.
“His wife is heavily pregnant and, like I said, I was aware of the situation when he came back before the Bohs game.
"Yeah, unfortunately, he’s not available but it’s something we’ll have to deal with. It’s a chance for someone else to come in and have an impact.”
Ahead of training at the venue for tomorrow’s game, Cotter added: “We’re hopeful that Shane Griffin and Kevin O’Connor can do a bit this evening and make themselves available for tomorrow, which would be great. Griff has been out for probably eight or nine weeks. It would be great to have those two available and hopefully everyone else will come through as well.”
Asked by local media what was the main lesson City took away from a first leg which saw the home side fall to a 2-0 defeat in Turner’s Cross, Cotter replied: “That we can’t give away soft goals. At this level, you get punished for that.
"It’s something we have looked to eradicate and something we’ve dealt with and hopefully tomorrow night we won’t be as open as that, like getting caught on the break for the second goal.”
Insisting that an away goal for the visitors could still throw the tie open, Cotter said: “We’ll be going out to put in a performance tomorrow. There’s personal pride at stake, there’s pride for the club and the supporters.
"Hopefully, we don’t concede something soft and be rightly chasing it. We want to stay in the game as long as possible and hopefully get the first goal and see where that takes us.”
