For someone who's just won the first GAA/GPA Player of the Month award for 2015 – and still fresh from captaining Waterford to only a third ever National Hurling League title – Kevin Moran is looking strangely despondent.
Yet for good reason: he’d just been to visit team-mate Pauric Mahony at the Whitfield Sports Clinic in Waterford, where Mahony, 23, had undergone an operation on Tuesday on the broken shin bone sustained in a club match over the weekend – ruling their top-scoring forward and free-taker out for the rest of the season.
“He’s in good form,” said Moran, “as good as you can be, I suppose.It was pretty serious. I think he was on the table for four or five hours. But at least he’s on the road to recovery now, please God.”
If the extent of Mahony’s injury wasn’t bad enough, so too was the timing of it. Not only does it rob Waterford of the player, who scored 1-90 in their eight league games, just as they switch their attention to the Munster championship and a rematch with defeated league finalists Cork, it also came exactly a year after older brother Philip sustained a near identical injury.
Good hands
“To the day, apparently,” confirmed Moran. “But then Philip made an unbelievable recovery. He played in two or three of Ballygunner’s matches towards the end of last year. There’d be no stone left unturned there with regard to recovery. They’d be very close to Tadhg O’Sullivan (the surgeon) as well, so he’s in good hands. Step one of the recovery is complete, so every day he’s getting closer to getting back out on the field now.”
Moran expects Mahony, who could go home today, to stick around the Waterford panel as they look to build on that league success: “The nature of the guy that he is, he’ll be helping someone to hit the frees on match days, or help with the water, or whatever. I think it’s important for us that he will be around. Because he would have been a huge leader in the dressing room. Even more so off the field.”
Waterford manager Derek McGrath must now task someone else with the free-taking duties. The panel haven’t yet reconvened since news of the injury, although Moran believes plenty of players will be both willing and able.
“I’m sure Derek will sit us down and say: ‘Look lads, someone can come out of the pack, put your hand up, see what you can do and fill that gap. Do it for the team and let’s not have it affect us as much as possible and use it as positive reinforcement.’
“We’ve guys who’d hit frees with their clubs.
Jake Dillon
,
Maurice Shanahan
,
Stephen Bennett
, so there’s a good few.”
The equivalent GAA/GPA Player of the Month award in football went to Roscommon forward Senan Kilbride.
