Doyle's return ends in hospital

The Peter Pan of Kildare GAA made a comeback appearance in the preliminary round of the Joe Mallon Motors Senior Football Championship but unfortunately it was no fairytale story for Johnny Doyle.

On the back of a Division 1 league campaign that saw them lose all 11 games, Allenwood turned to 47-year-old Doyle, who had announced his retirement at the end of last year’s Championship season, and of course he was never going to say no to his club in their hour of need.

A game against a Clogherinkoe side who had won only one of their 11 games in Division 2 this season offered Allenwood an opportunity of a win that would have secured their senior football status for another year.

However, things didn’t go to plan and after playing with a strong wind, Clogherinkoe led 2-9 to 0-2 at half time.

Unfortunately for Doyle, matters were even worse as he was replaced at half time after picking up a suspected dislocated shoulder and he was replaced at the break and spent Saturday in hospital with an operation potentially required.

Without Doyle, Allenwood did pick up after the break and scored six two pointers before eventually losing by a point, 3-11 to 1-16. 

That means they now enter the losers section of the group stages and relegation from Senior Football is still a possibility but whether they’ll be able to call on their most famous player again remains to be seen.

We send Johnny our best wishes in his recovery.