“A painful evening on every front†is the headline across the top of the front page of The Irish Times’ Sports Weekend section. It relates to Ireland’s loss against the Barbarians on Friday night in Limerick in a game that saw Declan Kidney’s selection options prior to Ireland’s tour of Australia and New Zealand narrow further.
During a game that the Baa-baas dominate for at least the first 50 minutes, Fergus McFadden and our own Jerry Flannery  suffered injuries that may rule them out of the tour. Earlier in the day, Shane Horgan had gone to hospital with a stomach complaint that leaves him “extremely doubtfulâ€.
Although the lead headline referred to one story, it was equally suitable for a second story on the page which related to the 2010 World Cup and to Rio Ferdinand being ruled out of the tournament after suffering a knee ligament injury and Didier Drogba in doubt after injuring his arm.
The Irish Daily Mirror leads with the Ferdinand and Drogba story, calling the day they got injured “Black Fridayâ€. They also make reference to Italy’s Andrea Pirlo – man of the match in Italy’s World Cup final triumph four years ago – who they say is struggling to be match fit ahead of the group stage of the big event in South Africa.
The Irish Sun also focus on Ferdinand, with quotes from the England skipper’s friend and agent Pini Zahavi. “Rio said: ‘I think somebody cursed me’. That is honestly how the man feels,†Zahavi says. The Sun also has the story that hints that Sven Goran Eriksson would like to throw his hat in the ring for the manager’s job at Anfield. Sun reporter Paul Jiggins says that Sven has confessed to being a lifelong Livepool fan and has admitted that managing the Kop would be a dream job. Dream job? More of a nightmare – just ask the freshly-departed Benitez.
Gaelic Games get a look in on the back page of the Indo, with a look at Kerry’s dynamic duo of Kieran Donaghy and Colm Cooper. GAA writer Vincent Hogan writes that Donaghy’s return to finess liberates sidekick Copper to give Kerry back their cutting edge.
