*James Killeen. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
DOONBEG’s James Killeen is set to miss the remainder of the season after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
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Killeen has been part of the county senior football panel for the first time but has sidelined in recent weeks after receiving confirmation that he picked up the dreaded ACL injury. Initially the extent of his injury was not known and he was able to train before confirmation of the diagnosis.
While an immediate breakthrough to the starting Clare team in his first season was not a guarantee, his loss will be a monumental blow to Doonbeg where he has been such a solid anchor of their defence.
Brian Shanahan’s side have been paired in a tricky Group 1 alongside holders Éire Óg, 2023 winners Cratloe and 2019 winners St Joseph’s Miltown and they will certainly miss the presence of the full back.
Since his addition to the county panel in November, James was full-back in challenge matches against Galway and Clare’s U20s while he was introduced for the entire second half of their 3-10 0-11 win against Waterford in the McGrath Cup in January. He was not part of the matchday twenty six for any of the Allianz National Football League outings but was among those to partake in the warm-up against Limerick.
He is the second Clare panellist to sustain an ACL injury this season, James Curran of St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield did his knee injury over the festive period. Emmet McMahon is nearing a return from his ACL injury which he picked up when playing a challenge match for Kildysart last July while Colm Walsh O’Loghlen had his injury when lining out for Éire Óg in the Clare SFC.
Clare manager, Paul Madden told The Clare Echo, “We’ve lost two lads with cruciate injuries, James Curran and James Killeen. We’ve lost those lads and we’ve a couple of lads on the injury table and coming back from injuries, Colm Walsh O’Loghlen will be back this year, he is making progress, Emmet McMahon is making progress.
“We’ve a big enough panel of thirty six lads, we brought in fifty two at the start, we had sixty seven names on a board, because we’re local we’re able to identify lads who played well for the club and it is important that players had that idea that if they played well for the club that they would be seen, there is a big difference, you could be the best player in your club but you just might not be able, you could have eight lads going for three of the inside forward positions and the five that aren’t getting in are starting for their clubs and are the main fellas every day, they are training really hard and that is the nature of it. Thirty five or six is enough but if you pick up injuries and you want to play in-house games that is when you feel it, you do need a big panel”.
