Mort's metatarsal

The injury that Trevor Mortimor sustained in the kickaround with the U21s last weekend is far more serious than was first indicated. According to the Mayo News, he's gone and broken one of his metatarsals - those pesky little bones in the foot that footballers these days seem to be forever snapping.

Once upon a time, none of us knew that we had such things as metatarsals in our bone structure. But then along came David Beckham and broke the second metatarsal in his left foot in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup finals. Cue daily medical updates and a general media frenzy. The humble metatarsal hasn't looked back since. When Wayne Rooney followed suit (fourth metatarsal, right foot) shortly before last year's World Cup finals, another media scrum ensued.

Trevor's injury won't generate the same kind of media interest but, thanks to Becks and Shrek, we know a fair bit about how long he's likely to be out. Medical reports suggest a 4-8 weeks recovery period but it can often be longer (Arsenal's Robin van Persie broke one at the end of January and there's no sign of him returning to action two months on) so it could be of the order of 10-12 weeks. That would mean that, assuming we make it there, the earliest we could reasonably expect him back would be for the Connacht final on 8th July. There appears to be little chance that he'll be back in time for the clash with Galway on 20th May.

It's tough luck on Mort, who has had a rough enough time over the past two seasons what with injuries and suspensions. His performances so far this year, notably against Fermanagh a few weeks back, gave room for hope that he was recapturing the form he showed in 2004. Now this.

With David Brady and Kevin O'Neill still out, Ciaran Mac hampered with a recurring back problem and the unfortunate Ronan McGarritty's future prospects up in the air, we're having little luck as regards injuries. To make matters worse, all five are experienced campaigners and so we'll definitely miss their input in the coming weeks. We could certainly do with them down in Cork tomorrow night.