Earley decision will come as late as possible

THERE WAS one fairly miraculous recovery from a knee injury down Kilkenny way this week, and now Kildare are waiting on another. Rather than rule out Dermot Earley, even at this late stage, Kildare will wait until a few hours before Sunday’s All-Ireland football semi-final against Down before deciding whether or not to start him at his usual midfield birth – and it appears as if the final decision will actually be left to the player himself.

For now, Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney has announced an unchanged line-up to that which started the quarter-final against Meath, which means Earley is named at midfield alongside Daryl Flynn. Earley has played throughout the championship with the remnants of a cruciate ligament injury, but sustained further damage just three minutes into the Meath game, and limped off.

He has since undergone keyhole surgery, and returned to training last week, but it remains to be seen just how quickly he has recovered, with Hugh Lynch, who replaced him to very good effect against the Royals, on standby to step in. Ronan Sweeney remains another, and certainly experienced, option for McGeeney.

Kildare selector Niall Carew has pointed out that Earley’s injury is not related to the cruciate damage sustained during a league game against Laois last spring, and is in fact damage to another area of the same troublesome knee: “If it was the cruciate he would be gone but while he has a problem with the cruciate as well, that wasn’t the problem against Meath. It was another problem in the same knee.

“Dermot might not need surgery with the type of cruciate injury he has. Even though it is gone he can build up around it. It depends on the make-up of the body.

“Some lads can build it up and that will do the job. If it was gone completely he wouldn’t be able to play. But the fact is it is still hanging on with some fibres there and scans show that.

“With some lads it just caves in but Dermot was able to play a few league games and get back for the championship. We are going to give him every chance for Sunday, and let him decide.”

Henry Shefflin’s surprise recovery from his cruciate knee injury to resume full training with the Kilkenny hurlers this week must offer Earley some considerable encouragement of making it on Sunday.

In the meantime there is just one positional switch in the attack, with team captain Johnny Doyle and Eoghan O’Flaherty swapping roles at left-half forward and right-corner forward – hardly surprising given the Kildare forwards frequently swap around in the course of games anyway.

The only other selection of significance sees Brian Flanagan holding off the challenge of Mick Foley to keep his spot at left half-back.

Opponents Down will announce their team after training this evening, although it seems unlikely their midfielder Ambrose Rodgers will be included in the starting 15.

It has been ascertained that Rogers suffered only a strain of his cruciate knee ligament in a recent club game, and while that would apparently leave him with as similar a chance of featuring as Earley, he hasn’t been training to any great extent, and manager James McCartan is more likely to keep him in reserve.

“Obviously, we would rather have had him but we will just have to get on with it,” said McCartan. “If you look at Dermot Earley’s situation, he is 32 and is near the end of an outstanding playing career and maybe this is one of his last chances. Ambrose is a lot younger and you’d be putting the rest of his career at risk if he were to continue playing. So really we’re planning to be without him.”

Elsewhere, Galway minor manager Gerry Fahy has made wholesale changes to his team for Sunday’s All-Ireland minor semi-final against Cork at Croke Park. Galway just about edged past Longford in the All-Ireland quarter-final and Fahy has reacted by making alterations in every line of the field.

KILDARE (SF v Down):S McCormack; P Kelly, H McGrillan, A Mac Lochlainn; M O'Flaherty, E Bolton, B Flanagan; D Flynn, D Earley; J Kavanagh, P O'Neill, J Doyle; E O'Flaherty, A Smith, E Callaghan.

GALWAY (MF v Cork):J Keane; C MacDonnacha, J Shaughnessy, P Varley; M Loughnane, M Kelly, J Vaughan; E Commins, T Flynn; N Quinn, F Ó Curraoin (capt), N Walsh; P O Griofa, C Rabbitte, S Maughan.