LIBBY Coppinger faces a race against time to feature for Cork’s camogie and ladies football teams in their All-Ireland campaigns.
The Cork dual star suffered a grade 3C hamstring tear in the footballers’ Munster round-robin win against Tipperary on May 4th, and a subsequent scan has revealed the severity of the injury that could keep Coppinger sidelined for up to TEN weeks.
‘It’s a fairly substantial hamstring injury, and you’re looking at eight to ten weeks based on what we know about an injury like that. Unfortunately that could rule her out of most of the season,’ Cork ladies football manager Shane Ronayne told The Southern Star.
‘Normally you are sprinting flat out when you injure your hamstring but Libby was going down for a ball; it was a strange one and maybe that’s why it’s worse than it usually is.
‘Libby's in a race against time but she’ll do everything she can; she’s very diligent.’
If Coppinger is out of action for ten weeks, the St Colum’s star will miss the majority of Cork’s camogie and ladies football All-Ireland campaigns. The Cork ladies footballers will begin their TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship in June, and if they reach the business end, the semi-finals are fixed for July 20th and the final will be played on Sunday, August 4th.
Ger Manley’s Cork camogie team will also sorely miss back-to-back Camogie All-Star Coppinger as they get the defence of their All-Ireland title underway this weekend with their first group game at home to Wexford. The Rebels will target a place in the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Championship final in Croke Park on Sunday, August 11th, and will hope the talismanic Coppinger will be back, if Cork reach that stage of the season.
‘Libby’s going to be out for eight to ten weeks,’ Cork boss Manley agreed, ‘she had an operation last Saturday. She has to do rehab now for the next four or five weeks. We're hoping to get her back for the All-Ireland series, after the league section. That's a tough break for her. She's been phenomenal for us, a super athlete and better person, but it’s just a tough break.
‘With the heavy workload she has, both the football and the camogie teams have been trying to mind her. It was just unfortunate, really. She overstretched her hamstring. She was going down for the ball and she knew straight away. Look, it’s just unfortunate, but hopefully, we'll have her back for the All-Ireland series, if we get there.’
