Broken jaw keeps Hassett out

The Kerry footballer Mike Hassett yesterday travelled to Cork University Hospital for surgery on the broken jaw he suffered in the Laune Rangers county league club match with Kerins O'Rahilly's on Saturday afternoon. The former Kerry captain will be out of action for between six to eight weeks, thus missing Kerry's National Football League quarter-final encounter with Meath this Sunday.

The injury occurred two minutes before half-time in the game that was brought forward to Saturday so that Hassett would be available for Munster's Interprovincial football semi-final with Ulster the following day, where he was due to line out at left corner back. While the unintentional incident came from the run of play, it comes amid a number of controversial injuries in the game, both on and off the field.

After receiving a pass from his team-mate, Hassett was brought down by a high tackle in full view of the referee. Although the offending player was booked, Laune Rangers are expressing their disappointment with the nature of the incident.

"We're certainly not happy with the outcome of the tackle," said club chairman John Clifford. "It is likely that the incident will be discussed at our club meeting tonight but I can't comment on whether there will be further complaints at this stage. We didn't concern ourselves with objections at the particular time because we were attending to the injured player." Laune Rangers, the former All-Ireland club champions, held on to win the game by a two-point margin.

Hassett has a highly successful background in Kerry football, playing All-Ireland minor and Under-21 for two years before captaining the county to Munster and National League titles in 1997. He was surprisingly taken off before the end of the Munster final victory over Clare and was subsequently injured before the All-Ireland final, which Kerry won, missing out on the championship medal that many felt he deserved.

Even though his brother Liam took over as captain and accepted the Sam Maguire on that occasion, there was strong disappointment within the family and the two brothers withdrew from the county panel for much of last year. He was brought back into Paidi O Se squad in October and has figured strongly in them advancing to the play-offs of the league but this injury will be another unfortunate setback for the Killorglin man, who turns 25 tomorrow.

"Naturally it is very disappointing in that I think Mike was after regaining all his old form," says O Se. "We'll just have to put it behind us and hope he has a quick road to recovery. I don't know how long he will be out of action but it's definitely a loss for the Meath game."

The Kerry manager has a number of possible replacements to choose from, the most obvious being Killian Burns, along with William Kirby and Eamon Fitzmaurice, both capable of filling defensive roles, but with Meath's recent form somewhere near their best under a full strength squad, the loss may yet prove substantial.

While all of this weekend's hurling fixtures went off without major incidents, the Hassett injury comes soon after the series of violent outbreaks that the GAA's Games Administration Committee (GAC) have been forced to deal with in the last few weeks. They still have the controversy of Westmeath goalkeeper Dermot Ryan on their hands, who also suffered a broken jaw in the National Football League Game against Wicklow in Mullinger back on February 28th. The implications of that incident will again be addressed at the GAC meeting on Thursday night in Croke Park.

It has been confirmed that two Westmeath players have independently identified the Wicklow panel member who they believe made the strike at Ryan while walking into the tunnel at half-time. They gave their evidence to the GAC two weeks ago and have been called up again for Thursday's meeting, along with the individual which they claim to have seen.

While the named person has denied the allegation, and Ryan himself has stated that he did not see the player who hit him from behind, the Westmeath County Board are confident that they have sufficient evidence which could result in a substantial ban on the Wicklow individual involved. Either way it will be a complicated case for the GAC and the matter is by no means sure to be resolved this week.

Meanwhile, Armagh's 13-point victory over Leitrim in the postponed National Football League game at Crossmaglen on Saturday has finalised their quarter-final meeting with Sligo this Sunday. That fixture is set for Pearse Park in Longford while Derry, who would have faced Armagh had they had lost that last game to Leitrim, are now scheduled to meet Cork in Croke Park.

The Dublin versus Kildare tie will also be played as a double header in Croke Park, probably attracting crowds in excess on 30,000, with the remaining quarter-final featuring Meath against Kerry is set for the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick.