A “shocking” quad muscle tear has ruled one Cargin attacker out for the rest of the season while another is currently sidelined with a broken arm
Cargin’s hopes of retaining their Antrim SFC title have suffered a massive blow with confirmation that Jamie Gribbin will miss the rest of the season.
The lively attacker missed Cargin’s opening two Group One wins over Randalstown and St John’s and, speaking after last Sunday’s victory at Corrigan Park, Ronan Devlin said a scan revealed the true extent of Gribbin’s quad muscle tear.
“Unfortunately, Jamie is history,” said Devlin.
“Jamie’s quad has a shocking bad tear – he is gone. He is a big blow to us to be honest. I don’t think appreciate how good he is. He’s never talked about as being one of the best forwards in Antrim – I can tell you is he. He’s a massive blow.
“Jamie out there (against St John’s) would have made hay.”
He added: He is a class act and he is a great cub too and that’s why it is annoying.
“He’s going to have to back to the grind – it is just a bad injury. He has just sprinting in a straight line at training, that’s it, the quad just went. We were just doing sprints and it turned out to be far worse than we thought.”
Cargin’s attacking resources have been further stretched with the unavailability of Pat Shivers after he returned from playing in America with a broken arm.
The Toome men face Dunloy in their final group game in what is a repeat of the county final of 2023 with both teams already through to the quarter-finals.
That game will come too soon for Shivers, but he might be fit to play some part in a quarter-final clash next month.
“Pat’s injury will just be a case of it it heals in time. The boys that are there are going to have to dig us out.
“We are through to the quarter-finals now so, no matter what, we’ve another month to go anyway.
Devlin also stressed that he has no intention of resting players for their final group game against Dunloy.
The winners of Group One will face the runners-up from Group Four while the runners up from Group One look certain to face St Brigid’s.
“We always go out to try and win a game of football. So I can’t see why it would be any different,” added Devlin.
“So we’ll play whoever suits us. I never look any further ahead than the next match, to be honest. Other teams might say what happens in another group, is it better winning or losing or whatever – I think it’s a load of crap. We’ll play the team in front of us. We’ll try and beat them.
“I think that’s the only thing you can do. I imagine Dunloy do the same.”
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