Dublin manager Mattie Kenny only became aware of a positive Covid case, which led to late withdrawal of four of his players, just hours before last evening's Leinster SHC final.

Cian O'Callaghan and Ronan Hayes, who were named to start, and substitutes Fergal Whitely and Oisin O'Rourke, were ruled out ahead of the 0-19 to 1-25 defeat to Kilkenny at Croke Park. To compound matters, Eoghan O'Donnell and Mark Schutte were both forced off with injuries by half-time. 

"They were deemed close contacts, we got notified by the HSE that our players were close contacts and we lost four guys," Kenny revealed to RTÉ.

"Look it, that’s what our squad is for. We had to re-jig things a little bit but that's part and parcel of modern-day Ireland, isn't it?

"We talked to the players this morning and we asked the guys to pull behind us and concentrate on the game.

"Our guys were very brave there, we asked them to be brave and drive on. They were very brave between the two injuries in the first half, and losing the six guys was a massive loss.

"Our guys did themselves proud, they did Dublin proud. We’ll regroup."

Tweet

Most Read Stories