Scan reveals Donaghy's injury not as bad as feared

KERRY FANS and team boss Pat O'Shea were able to breath a huge sigh of relief when it emerged last night that Kieran Donaghy's injury has turned out to be not as serious as first feared.

Donaghy, who got a scan on his knee yesterday afternoon at Kerry General Hospital, was informed last night that he had damaged some cartilage in his knee and that will mean that he will be out for only a couple of weeks, providing the knee responds to treatment.

It appears that Donaghy should be available for Kerry's championship opener against Clare on June 15th at the Fitzgerald Stadium, but whether he will be risked remains to be seen as Tommy Walsh is playing superb club football with Kerins O'Rahillys at the moment.

Meanwhile, Munster Council chairman Jimmy O'Gorman has expressed disappointment with the standard of fare on offer in last Sunday's provincial senior football quarter-finals and has vowed to find solutions to the problems in the weaker counties.

Just 1,700 fans watched Limerick defeat Tipperary in Fermoy, while just over 2,000 were in Ennis as Clare beat Waterford.

Those figures indicate huge apathy and O'Gorman is "very worried about the gulf" between, on the one hand, Cork and Kerry, and, on the other hand, the rest.

O'Gorman said: "My first commitment when I was elected chairman was to set up a high-powered committee to look at the state of football in four weaker counties.

"Although I would be perceived as a hurling chairman because I'm a native of Waterford, nothing could be further from the truth."

O'Gorman, who was at Cusack Park, added: "The committee, under the chairmanship of Limerick's John Landers, has already issued a preliminary report and I'm waiting for them to come back with a final report. I don't want that thrown in the dustbin and where possible, we will act on it."

O'Gorman and his Munster Council colleagues were heavily criticised this year when voting to revert to seedings for the provincial football championship, Kerry and Cork being kept apart until the final, but O'Gorman said, "I have no problem whatsoever with the way we went about the seeding system. . . the motion on the agenda for the meeting was that the finalists of the previous year be seeded. It wasn't that Cork and Kerry specifically were to be seeded. We put that to the delegates, they went away and I have no doubt that they voted as their counties mandated."

O'Gorman added, "When I see what I saw in Ennis and read about the fare in Fermoy, there's no point turning a blind eye to the problem because it's there.

"Counties and their followers deserve better because going to a match now is a very expensive day out and we need to give people value for money."