Burke set for lengthy spell on the sidelines

There was some bad news on the injury front for Kildare stars over the last week or so.

The most severe of all is a cruciate injury suffered by James Burke in the dying moments of Kildare’s McDonagh Cup final win over Laois.

The towering dual star has been a key player for Kildare for many years now and was once again pivotal in Kildare’s success this year.

Kildare manager Brian Dowling mentioned after the team’s loss to Dublin last weekend that Burke could be out for anything up to a year such is the severity of the injury which would be cruel on the player himself ahead of the exciting 2026 that is in store, but also a major blow for a team will need to be at full strength when going up against some of the of the best teams in the country.

In the short term, it also rules Burke out of the upcoming Club Championships. Burke has been a key figure during a golden, record-breaking era for the Naas club. During the Club Championships, he has constantly churned out a high level of performance week after week, whether it be for the five-in-a-row winning hurlers or four-in-a-row winning footballers, and his loss will be keenly felt by both as they bid to retain their titles.

There was also a further update on the luckless Jimmy Hyland with Kildare senior football team manager Brian Flanagan confirming that the Ballyteague man is unlikely to feature for the county team again this year.

Given there is a less than a month left in Kildare’s season at the very most that’s probably not a huge surprise but still cruel on a player who can’t seem to catch a break.

Hyland left the Hyde Park on crutches after Kildare’s win over Sligo three weeks ago and there were concerns that he may have damaged his achilles but while he have avoided that nightmare outcome, the prognosis is still not great.

“Jimmy’s achilles and calf are fine, it’s more in the junction in between,” said Flanagan, after Kildare’s win over Offaly last weekend.

“It’s very hard to put a timeline on it at this stage. We have him in with a specialist this week to see what he reports back on but with four weeks at most left in our season, it would be unlikely for Jimmy,” he added.

The Kildare manager is relatively pleased with the fitness of his squad after Darragh Kirwan and Mick O’Grady made successful returns during that win over Offaly.

The main concerns ahead of Sunday’s Tailteann Cup semi-final against Fermanagh centre around Callum Bolton and Ben McCormack, with Bolton ahead on his road to recovery.

“Callum is tracking quite well and we’ll see what happens this week. Darragh played the full game against Offaly and came through it and we didn’t pick up any new injuries. Everyone else is moving along quite well and I think we are in a good position in that regard,” said Flanagan.