Seán Boyd has been ruled out of Shelbourne’s enormous Europa League qualifier on Tuesday against Croatian champions Rijeka with a calf injury.
Boyd started the first-leg in Rijeka last week but the 27-year-old had to be replaced by John Martin after 19 minutes. Martin scored the winner in a famous 2-1 result that means Shelbourne only need a draw at Tolka Park to secure group stage football.
“Kick in the calf [in Croatia] that swelled up,” confirmed Joey O’Brien, the Shelbourne manager. “Strange one. He is finding it hard to walk and with the quick turnaround he won’t be available.
“He started the game really well last week. John Martin came on and done really well. I keep going back to the strength of the squad. That was an example of it.”
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Martin scored a second header in as many days to secure a 2-2 draw with Bohemians at Tolka Park on Saturday.
Progress from the Europa League third qualifying round, to face the winners of POAK (Greece) or Wolfsberger (Austria) in a play-off would guarantee O’Brien’s team group stage football this season as they will be redirected to the Uefa Conference League if they lose the Europa play-off.
If Rijeka reverse the 2-1 deficit at Tolka, Shels will face the winners of Linfield (Northern Ireland) and Vikingur in a two-legged Conference League play-off on August 21st and 28th.
Progress to the Europea League proper would earn the League of Ireland champions at least €4.31 million in prize money. That figure drops to €3.17 million for reaching the Conference League.
