THE disappointment for Cork of losing the Munster SHC final was compounded by the fact that midfielder Tommy O’Connell will miss the Offaly game with a broken thumb while his partner Tim O’Mahony is also a doubt.

BY JOHNNY CAROLAN

O’Connell, who has started all five championship games for Ben O’Connor’s side this season, sustained a hand injury during Sunday’s Munster SHC final defeat to Limerick at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh and was substituted late in the game.

Tests have confirmed a fractured thumb, while O’Mahony is dealing with a dead leg that could also keep him out of the game at FBD Semple Stadium on Sunday week, June 21st.

‘Tommy has a broken thumb,’ said O’Connor, ‘so he’s definitely out the next day.

‘If we got beyond that, we’ll see then how it heals.

‘It looks like Tim is out as well, he has a dead leg. It’s not as serious, hopefully, but we’re waiting to see what happens.

‘You’re going to pick up knocks and bangs. I’m sure now that Tommy is going to try his hardest to get it healed as fast as possible but it has to knit.

‘There’s no rushing it – if you did that and got a bang on it again, your year is over.’

In better news, O’Connor is optimistic that captain Darragh Fitzgibbon will be available for Offaly, having missed the win over Clare and Sunday’s final due to appendicitis.

‘We’d hope that he’d be back,’ he said.

‘He’ll have to get on the field before the weekend, in contact, if he is to be in contention for Sunday week and he sees confident that he will be able to.

‘He has been doing a bit of running but the contact will tell.’

In Fitzgibbon’s absence, Mark Coleman deputised as captain on Sunday and he was Cork’s representative at Tuesday’s All-Ireland championship launch, which took place at his home club of Blarney.

He is keen to get back on the horse as quickly as possible and focus on the Offaly game.

‘We don't have much time to be dwelling on it now,’ he said.

‘It's straight back into training and getting ready for the quarter-final. I haven't watched it back yet but just off my own thoughts, we probably just didn't do enough in the second half to get over the line.

‘You have to be scoring a bit more to be beating Limerick especially. Obviously, it was difficult conditions but you still want to be getting a few more scores on the board. ‘Ultimately, the better team won.’

It need not be fatal, though, and many expect the sides to meet again in the All-Ireland final. Aside from last year’s round-robin game in Limerick, which the hosts won by 16 points, most meetings have been close – can Coleman put his finger on why?

‘I don't know,’ he said, ‘I think we're just pretty evenly-matched teams.

‘They've obviously been the best team in the country over the last ten years and we've put a lot of work into trying to get up to that level. I think we just match up well.

‘It probably took us a while to physically get up to their level. Even watching back old games, you see fellas' body shape has changed so much to be able to compete with them.

‘That's probably why we've gotten a bit closer over the last few years.’