O’Neill still on the mend

By Shaun Casey

ARMAGH defender Conor O’Neill is still recovering from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon injury picked up during their successful All-Ireland title run last year and while he’s back training with Killeavy, he won’t play any part in the club championship, says Steven McDonnell.

O’Neill picked up the injury during the round-robin meeting with Westmeath at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in 2024, missing the Orchard County’s history journey towards Sam Maguire.

O’Neill, who made his Armagh debut back in 2020, started the 2023 Ulster final, which Armagh lost out to Derry via penalties, but has been out injured since that Westmeath game.

Killeavy are in the playoff stages of the Armagh Senior Championship having won the Division 1A league title for the first time in their history this year, but O’Neill won’t feature for McDonnell’s men.

“Conor is still out; Conor won’t play any part for us unfortunately this year.

“He is back training and he’s fairly fit, he picked up a seriously bad injury, he ruptured his Achilles’ tendon,” said McDonnell.

“I know first-hand the type of injury it is because I ruptured my own 18 months ago. It’s not an easy injury to overcome and while he’s back training, he’s not in full training with the team, he’s just back doing a bit.

“He’s going travelling in the next couple of weeks for maybe four or five months and it’s probably something he needs to do to clear his head as well.

“It’s unfortunate from our point of view that he’s not going to be available but from his point of view, we can see the reasons why he’s doing it.”