Cork star Sean Og O hAilpin is wary of Antrim in the All-Ireland quarter-finals next weekend – but believes that the Leesiders should win the game regardless of their injury situation.
Antrim caused an upset by knocking out Dublin the final round of the hurling qualifiers on Saturday to book their place in the last eight.
They will face a Cork side who came up short after the Munster final replay against Waterford went to extra-time later the same day.
O hAilpin, who missed that defeat with a hamstring injury, is one of several Cork players with fitness concerns ahead of the quarter-final but he believes Denis Walsh’s side should be up to the task of seeing the county safely into the last four.
In his latest exclusive column for JOE, O hAilpin wrote, “Antrim have beaten a good side because I really rate Dublin. They’re in the quarter-finals now, and you can imagine the confidence they’ll have. We’ve lost a big game so our confidence is dented, so you have one team whose tails are up against another, Cork, who’ll be trying to pick themselves back up.
“We also have a few problems to deal with. Shane O’Neill went off on Saturday with a hamstring injury, Ronan Curran couldn’t play in extra-time because he got a bad bang on the thigh, Jerry O’Connor is still nursing a hamstring injury, I’m still nursing a hamstring injury … No disrespect to Antrim, but whether we have a full-strength team or we have a few guys from the subs bench coming in, we have to beat Antrim. If we don’t then we’ve no business even thinking about winning an All-Ireland.â€
For more of this week’s hurling column, in which Sean Og talks about Antrim’s inside line on the Leesiders and Waterford’s blanket defence, click here.
