Ligament damage won't stop Lacey

INTERNATIONAL RULES NEWS:BOTH THE new and the familiar are neatly mixed in the 31-man provisional Irish panel for the International Rules series with Australia, although the hard call now for Ireland manager Anthony Tohill is who to leave at home.

The panel must be reduced to a 23-man travelling team by next Tuesday, when the 2011 Irish Tour captain will also be announced, before the entire touring party depart on October 21st: the first Test against the Australians is set for Melbourne on Friday October 28th, and the second a week later, November 4th, at the Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast.

“We’re very happy with the panel assembled, and the mood within the squad,” says Tohill, who held one of the final trial sessions in Croke Park last night. “Those who have trained with us have applied themselves diligently and are looking forward to the challenge of regaining the Cormac McAnallen trophy. A number of other players were approached to join the training panel but were unable to do so due to injury and other commitments, and we’re now working our way through the difficult job of cutting the training panel to the required number of 23, although those players not selected will be on standby.”

Among those experienced players included in the preliminary panel and thus likely to travel are Armagh’s Steven McDonnell, Dublin’s Stephen Cluxton and Meath’s Kevin Reilly, but 15 counties are represented in total – including newcomers such as Donal Vaughan from Mayo, Tomás O’Connor from Kildare, and Cork trio Eoin Cadogan, Aidan Walsh and Patrick Kelly.

Six Australian-based players have also been listed, and if selected among the final 23, will join up with the Irish team in Melbourne. These are Tommy Walsh (Kerry/St Kilda), Michael Quinn (Longford /Essendon), Chrissy McKaigue (Derry/Sydney Swans), Zach Touhy (Laois/Carlton), Tadhg Kennelly (Kerry/Sydney Swans) and Pearse Hanley (Mayo/Brisbane Lions).

Also listed in the preliminary panel is Donegal’s Karl Lacey, who last played for Ireland in the 2006 series, and is now willing to train through knee ligament damage in order to play for his country, which he maintains is a “great opportunity”. Lacey sustained the knee injury in the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin, which forced his early retirement, and although he’s resigned to undergoing keyhole surgery in the near future, all he cares about for now is making that final list of 23.

“We’ve been training hard,” he says, “it’s great to be involved, and I’m delighted to have been asked by Anthony. It’s very competitive, 30 lads there, and every single one is training really hard. It’s a great opportunity to represent your country and play against professional athletes. So that’s what everybody wants, to try and make the final 23.

“For me, personally I have an actual tear in the meniscus ligament, and there’s cartilage damage there too. I’ve seen Ray Moran in the Santry Sports Clinic, and he’s said that it’s going to need keyhole surgery at some stage but that I can still play away with it and get through it with intensive rehab and physio.

“It’s holding up okay at the minute. I got through two sessions out of three at the weekend and I’m easing my way back into it. So far so good. I’ve done no more damage to it but I’ll have to get the keyhole surgery done at some stage.”

Lacey was a definite loss to Donegal when he retired early against Dublin, although he’s not singling that out as the reason they lost: he still believes Donegal came desperately close, and had they taken one or two more of their scoring chances things could have been different. “I suppose if I’d been there I definitely would have driven forward, like I have been all year.

“Marty Boyle is attack-minded as well but it didn’t seem to happen for him. He couldn’t get on the ball around the half-back line and midfield and carry it. Dublin seemed to be closing us down very quickly, which is something they had probably looked at before the game.

“But I really do believe there was only a kick of the ball in it. Colm McFadden’s goal chance, that was a massive chance to put us five points ahead. I suppose that’s the wee bit of experience but that’s something that’s going to stand to us next year. We believe we’re definitely up there as one of the top teams in the country at the moment. We’re not too far away.

“Dublin have had their critics in the last couple of years and we can admire that now. We’ve had our critics this year but we’re going to have the belief that we can get there. There’s definitely things that need tweaking. Jim McGuinness has a five-year plan, that’s what he’s been telling us.

“We’ve met up already since the Dublin game and had a chat and every player is willing to go that extra step and train even harder. How, I don’t know, but we’ll give it a go anyway.”

FULL PANEL

Stephen Cluxton(Dublin)

Leighton Glynn(Wicklow)

Rob Kelly (Kildare) *

Emmet Bolton(Kildare)

Brendan Murphy (Carlow)

Colm Begley(Laois)

Kevin Reilly(Meath)

Karl Lacey(Donegal)

Neil McGee(Donegal)*

Michael Murphy(Donegal)

Steven McDonnell(Armagh)

Ciarán McKeever(Armagh)

Danny Hughes(Down)*

Kevin McKernan(Down)

Joe McMahon(Tyrone)

Darren Hughes(Monaghan)*

Finian Hanley(Galway)*

Donal Vaughan(Mayo)*

Eoin Cadogan(Cork)*

Aidan Walsh(Cork)*

Patrick Kelly(Cork)*

Tomás O'Connor(Kildare)*

Eamon Callaghan(Kildare)* Kieran Donaghy (Kerry)

Darran O'Sullivan(Kerry)*

Tommy Walsh(Kerry/St Kilda)

Michael Quinn(Longford /Essendon)*

Chrissy McKaigue(Derry/Sydney Swans)*

Zach Touhy(Laois/Carlton)*

Tadhg Kennelly(Kerry/Sydney Swans)

Pearse Hanley(Mayo/Brisbane Lions)*

* First-time selection.

Panel to be reduced from 31 to 23 on Tuesday

TOUR DETAILS

First test:Etihad Stadium,Melbourne, Friday, October 28th

Second test: Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast, November 4th"