All shoulders to the wheel as Kerry footballers get ready to roll

At the time it was a perfectly innocent throwaway remark. Days before Kerry headed to last week’s pre-championship training camp in the Algarve, their footballer of the year James O’Donoghue prayed out loud that one of his team mates “absolutely lays me out, and I’ll be fine after that”.

That, said O’Donoghue, was the only way to put his recovery from a shoulder injury to the absolute test.

While O’Donoghue looks to have come safely through that test, their All Star defender Paul Murphy has been left praying for the opposite.

Murphy, who was also man-of-the-match in Kerry’s All-Ireland final win over Donegal last summer, was apparently laid out by one of his team mates in Portugal, injuring his shoulder in the process.

While not as serious as the injury which forced O’Donoghue to undergo an operation last November – and with that sit out all of Kerry’s league campaign – Murphy will be forced to miss Kerry’s opening defence of their Munster and All-Ireland titles against Tipperary, this Sunday at Semple Stadium.

He’s not alone. Manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice may have timed last week’s training camp to maximise championship fervour, following Kerry’s 10-week break since their last competitive game in the league. But it looks to have cost them Dr Crokes forward Kieran O’Leary, after he tore his Achilles tendon.

O’Leary was joint Kerry captain last summer, sharing the honour with Fionn Fitzgerald, also from Dr Crokes (their regular starter, at corner back). O’Leary did make several appearances last summer, including the All-Ireland final, where he replaced Kieran Donaghy.

The injury worries don’t end there, with the likes of Marc Ó Sé (ankle), Killian Young (groin), and David Moran (shoulder) all carrying some problems from the last round of league games. Whether or not Fitzmaurice will test them on Sunday remains to be seen. It means Kerry could be without half of the defence which started the All-Ireland final last September, should Young and Ó Sé miss out, along with Murphy.

There is speculation that Tommy Walsh, the most prominent addition this year after returning from Australia, may play a defensive role, possibly even at full back, although that looks unlikely. Paul Galvin, also back on board this year, is more likely to feature in defence, if anywhere.

One player certain to feature on Sunday is Colm “Gooch” Cooper, in what will be his first championship appearance for Kerry since his cruciate injury in February, 2014. Cooper came on for the last six minutes of Kerry’s final league game against Tyrone on April 5th. It remains to be seen where Fitzmaurice decides to utilise him.

O’Donoghue describes Cooper’s return to the panel as “like a new signing,” and says he’s equally capable of slotting back in at either centre forward, or as an inside forward.

“It’s something that will just click or it won’t,” he says. “I don’t know who is going to line out where, but hopefully, once we get time on the field together, things will start moving in different directions, and it will just kind of happen itself.”

Tipperary are seeking their first championship victory over Kerry since 1928 (when they won a Munster semi-final, 1-7 to 2-3). More recently, Kerry have won their last four meetings by an average of 11.5 points.

Yet O’Donoghue, like most people it seems, would be reluctant to agree to any abolition of the Munster championship. “If you put a system to me, I could say yes or no, but I don’t know how they would change it ... It’s a tough one. I wouldn’t want to make the decision.”