Derry could be without Cormac O'Doherty for rest of league says Johnny McGarvey

Derry senior hurling team manager Johnny MvGarvey. Photo:  George SweeneyDerry senior hurling team manager Johnny MvGarvey. Photo:  George Sweeney
Derry senior hurling team manager Johnny MvGarvey. Photo: George Sweeney
​Senior hurling manager Johnny McGarvey has revealed Slaughtneil star Cormac O'Doherty is unlikely to play any part in Derry's National League Division Two campaign as he works his way back from injury.

O'Doherty has missed both the opening weekend victory over Tyrone in Healy Park and Saturday's heavy home defeat against Down with a muscle injury, with McGarvey conceding he's unlikely to see his inspirational captain before the Christy Ring Cup starts in April.

The news is a blow with the Lavey native already missing the likes of Paddy Kelly, Ruairi O Mianain, Cahal Murray and Eamon Conway as he seeks to consolidates Derry's position in hurling's new third tier.

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"PK (Paddy Kelly) got hurt against Antrim in a challenge match a couple of weeks ago and just hasn't had enough time to recover," explained McGarvey after Saturday's defeat in Owenbeg, "Eamon Conway got hurt in the same match, but Eamon will probably make next week.

"Ruairi's one has been niggling him from Slaughtneil's (Ulster) run. With Cormac, it looks like he's probably not going to play the league at this stage.

"Big Jack (Cassidy) is away from the panel; Cahal Murray has had elbow surgery, he's probably six or seven weeks away."

And McGarvey wasn't prepared to use those absentees as an excuse for Derry's poor display in Saturday's 2-26 to 0-13 defeat to the Mourne men.

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"Look, there are no excuses," he added, "The players that aren't playing are not an excuse for getting beat the way we get beat today. "Of course some of our best players are missing. I think maybe 9 or10 of the team that played in Croke Park (last season) aren't there, but there's not much we can do about it. We have to play with the players we have.

"We're certainly better than we showed today but, look, you put it behind you and you move on. We wanted to play at this level to try and push ourselves on. That's with the players that we have now, that are available to play. We can't worry about players that aren't available to play."

Ironically Derry started brightly enough against the Ronan Sheehan's highly fancied Down side, recovering from three nil down to level the game at 0-4 a-piece by the 15th minute. However seven unanswered Down points, followed by a burst of 2-02 within the opening minutes of the second half, turned the game into a victory procession for the visitors.

"We were just totally outplayed," admitted the Derry manager, "We weren't good enough. We weren't at it when the match was in the melting pot in those first 15 or 16 minutes. "When the game was at that stage, we had chances to be closer. Down scored maybe 6 or 7 in a row and we didn't score for 12 minutes. We got the last two of the first half and came in and set ourselves down. "We tried to work it out and set ourselves properly for the start of the second half and then to concede two early soft goals at the start of the second half, the game was over at that stage.

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"(We shot) A lot of really, really poor wides. We had four in the middle of second half from 10 or 15 metres of space. We had two or three in the first half, it just wasn't good enough. It's disappointing but it is what it is, we move on to Kerry next week."

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