Robertson X-ray shows bad break says Carr

Ian Robertson will definitely miss the Leinster final replay against Kildare on Saturday week. Contrary to early reports Dublin manager Tom Carr confirmed yesterday evening that his full forward will not have recovered from the ankle injury sustained on Sunday.

The player was involved in a collision with Kildare's Brian Lacey in the opening minutes and although he stayed on the field, he had to be substituted after 18 minutes. In the immediate aftermath the Dublin management feared that Robertson had broken his ankle and the damage was X-rayed the night of the match and this suggested that there had been no break.

This initial optimism gave way to a gloomier prognosis. "It's not good," said Carr. "There is a fracture of a bone within the foot. Noel McCaffrey (Dublin's team doctor) wasn't happy with the X-rays, which were a bit unclear. He felt that there was too much soreness for there to be nothing wrong and so he referred it to a fracture specialist and he spotted the damage. We're looking at a recovery period of between four and six weeks."

This would rule Robertson out of the championship until the All-Ireland final should Dublin defeat Kildare and Galway in the month ahead. His loss is a terrible blow to the team. Robertson had established himself as an excellent full forward last year and received an All Star nomination but missed the whole National League campaign with a groin injury.

The unfortunate player has been plagued with injury and just as it looked as if he had got himself right for the championship, the freakish collision on Sunday may have ended his involvement in this summer's action.

Carr was otherwise happy with the team performance and even views the impending replay as little inconvenience after an early campaign which didn't extend his team very much. "The only disadvantage is if you were to lose another player," he said.

Kildare's Lacey was co-incidentally injured later in the match but is expected to be ready for the replay. Team-mate Karl O'Dwyer's broken finger is also likely to have finally healed and his return would be a welcome lift for the side.

Meanwhile Cork name their side today for Sunday's All-Ireland hurling semi-final with Offaly at Croke Park. It is expected to be along similar lines to the lineout which retained the Munster title last month, with Pat Ryan likely to displace Mickey O'Connell at centrefield after a good performance as a substitute against Tipperary.

Manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy reports no injury worries ahead of the rerun of what was the match of the championship last year. He isn't bothered by having to face the same opposition but a little uneasy about the mood of expectation in the county. With Offaly's performances less than convincing and the absence of influential players because of injury and retirement, confidence is high in the southern capital.

"There's a definite air of complacency,"

says Barry-Murphy. "I'd be aware of that. I'm not looking at it that way. Offaly had a bad Leinster final behind them last year as well and still gave us a fantastic game."

Neither is he too concerned about the controversial state of the Croke Park pitch which was heavily criticised after the Galway-Tipperary quarter-final as being too short and having too poor a surface.

"I'm not bothered about that. It's the same for both teams and doesn't look much different to last year. It's maybe a slight advantage to Offaly to be more familiar with it but it doesn't really worry me. We'd like a bigger pitch like in Thurles but we found the space at Croke Park last year."

Finding space at Croke Park on Sunday created a couple of problems for GAA officials. Siobhan Brady of the press office had to deal with the spectators who arrived clutching tickets for press seats which had mysteriously disappeared in the post during the week.

"It caused a lot of confusion but fortunately we'd alerted Leinster Council and they made some seats available on the Canal End and we were able to redirect people who'd bought the tickets. We'll be using couriers to distribute the tickets next time. An Post are also looking into what happened."

She also said that the capacity for the Leinster football final replay would probably rise by a small amount bringing ticket availability to between 51,000 and 52,000.