Ballina manager Niall Heffernan has called for greater protection for players after Padraig O’Hora was hospitalised with a head injury on Sunday.

The county defender is set to miss next weekend’s semi-final against Ballaghaderreen after sustaining the injury during the first half of Stephenites’ 0-8 to 0-7 quarter-final victory over Castlebar Mitchels.

"We're very concerned about Padraig's health," Heffernan told Mayo Live.

"He's gone off there in an ambulance. Players need to be protected on the pitch and I feel Padraig didn't get as much protection as he should have got. He's definitely out for next week. I'm not going to say any more about it, but we told the players at half-time that we owed it to Padraig to go out and win the game.

"We asked them to show up in the second half, stand up and do what Padraig does for us, and a lot of them did that."

Tweet

Most Read Stories