![\"Cork](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5069538_1_articleinline_3438643.jpg\" "\\"Cork")
Cork hurling manager Ben O’Connor. Picture: Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nCork have suffered another defensive blow with the news that D\u00e1ire O\u2019Leary will miss Saturday\u2019s Munster SHC clash with Waterford at Azzurri Walsh Park (6pm).<\/p>\n
With Ciar\u00e1n Joyce and Robert Downey having been forced off in the win over Limerick last Sunday week, O\u2019Leary had been in the mix the fill the vacancies that had arisen.<\/p>\n
The Watergrasshill man, previously a part of the Cork panel under Kieran Kingston and Pat Ryan and recalled by manager Ben O\u2019Connor at the beginning of this year, started Cork\u2019s first five Allianz Hurling League games at full-back before a hamstring injury ruled him out.<\/p>\n
Following his return, he sustained an Achilles issue, as O\u2019Connor outlined.<\/p>\n
\u201cD\u00e1ire was just back,\u201d he said, \u201che had about a week or ten days done in training, but he picked up a knock in training and so he\u2019s out for this weekend, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new injury for him. There along, it was a hamstring he had but this is an Achilles injury he\u2019s after picking up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suppose the ground has got a bit harder, which didn\u2019t help, and he was after missing four or five weeks already through the hamstring, so that knocked that on the head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cork hurling manager Ben O’Connor. Picture: Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
That it is another defensive absentee will test the Rebels\u2019 depth even further but O\u2019Connor acknowledges that the situation creates opportunities, too.<\/p>\n
Damien Cahalane and Ger Millerick were the subs used against Limerick while Eoin Roche, Cormac O\u2019Brien and Miche\u00e1l Mullins are other backs who featured in the league and Tim O\u2019Mahony could be a possibility at number 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we had loads of options in the full-back line up until a few weeks ago,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, you\u2019ve Joycey out and D\u00e1ire too, so that\u2019s two gone straightaway. Look, it\u2019s disappointing but, the same as with the other injuries, what can we do only drive on with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, in an ideal world, everyone wants every fella fit and fighting for a place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, at the same time, when you see someone in your position getting injured, in the back of your head, you’re thinking to yourself, \u2018I’m a chance here now.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just the nature of sport, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cork go into Saturday\u2019s game top of the Munster round-robin table and another victory would all but guarantee a place in the provincial final.<\/p>\n
To that end, O\u2019Connor feels that the two-week gap has been very beneficial in the wake of playing Tipperary and Limerick on consecutive Sundays.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was,\u201d he said, \u201ceven mentally moreso than physically.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the Limerick game, the lads didn\u2019t much until the following weekend. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys just needed a break \u2013 there was a lot of pressure on the first two championship games. There is every year, but I suppose there was extra given the two teams that we were up against.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to get the two weeks off now to recharge the batteries and work on a few bits and pieces. <\/p>\n
\u201cFellas are in good form and they’re looking forward to Saturday evening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork have suffered another defensive blow with the news that D\u00e1ire O\u2019Leary will miss Saturday\u2019s Munster SHC clash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,24,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-471828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cork-gaa","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116529542380197209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}