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Brian O'Driscoll ruled out of Munster football championship

April 28th, 2018 4:00 PM

By Kieran McCarthy

Bad blow: Cork centre back Brian O'Driscoll suffered a hamstring injury in the Division 2 league win over Meath in March.

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Cork defender Brian O'Driscoll is expected to miss the entire Munster SFC, and possibly more, with a long-term injury.

CORK defender Brian O’Driscoll is expected to miss the entire Munster senior football championship, and possibly more, with a long-term injury.

The Tadhg MacCarthaigh clubman is at least two months away from returning to action as he continues his rehab from the hamstring injury he suffered in the Division 2 football league win away against Meath on March 11th.

O’Driscoll was helped off the field in the 39th minute and after the game Cork boss Ronan McCarthy admitted the injury was ‘a bad one’.

O’Driscoll ruptured his hamstring tendon, and he has torn this muscle before.

The Caheragh man was in London this week to meet with Professor Fares Haddad, the surgeon who operated on Castlehaven forward Brian Hurley’s injured hamstring last year.

There are two options for O’Driscoll – he can have surgery to repair the damaged hamstring or he can opt not to have surgery but that brings a chance of the injury reoccurring.

It’s believed that he will decide to drive forward without surgery and continue his rehab, which will be for the next eight to ten weeks. That will rule him out of Cork’s Munster SFC semi-final against either Tipperary or Waterford, and a possible provincial decider at the end of June, if Cork get that far. But if the rehab doesn’t work, he will be faced with surgery that will end his season.

The 24-year-old has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons. A dislocated shoulder sidelined him for spells in 2014 and 2017, while he suffered hamstring injuries in 2015, ’16 and ’17.

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