O’Neill laments Bruce Springsteen concert as two of his stars are ruled out of Championship opener

Kildare will be without two of their star performers from the National League campaign after manager Cian O’Neill confirmed that he is facing into a mini crisis on the injury front.

Daniel Flynn and Niall Kelly are the latest to be ruled out of Saturday’s Leinster quarter-final with Wexford, joining the likes of captain Eoin Doyle, Ciarán Fitzpatrick and Keith Cribbin on the sidelines.

“We've been very unfortunate with injuries this year,” sighed O’Neill.

“A lot of them are just unfortunate injuries really, not many of them are from contact. Obviously Daniel has been out for some time since the hamstring tear, so he won't be back in time. Ciarán Fitzpatrick obviously had that very unfortunate ankle injury in the league final, so he won't be back in time either.”

“Niall Kelly has been having calf problems. You could force it, you could rush it, but that's not something we're inclined to do. We have just got to make sure that it is healed right.”

“He had something similar during the Sigerson Cup. There was a lot of miles on the clock there and we tried to monitor it, but it's just stiffened up on him recently so Niall won't make it either.”

Keith Cribbin tore his Anterior Cruciate Ligament last year, and hasn’t played a minute of football since, but O’Neill says that there is some light at the end of the tunnel for the Johnstownbridge clubman.

“Keith is making great strides in fairness to him from his ACL recovery and I would like to think if we get our job done next Saturday he would be in a position to get back to full training, so that's great to see.”

His clubmate, Daniel Flynn, will be a massive loss on Saturday as his running power from midfield has been a feature of Kildare’s style this year so far, while Kelly has also enjoyed a promising opening to the season. O’Neill says that any county would miss players of such calibre, though he is certain that the strength of his panel will ensure that they are ably covered against the Slaneysiders.

“We were missing both of them against Clare and we still racked up quite a high score, but we can't afford to miss players of that quality. I don't think any county can. They're that good, that exceptional, but the bottom line is they are not going to be available. It gives an opportunity for someone else to step in there and put their hand up. We have the guys to do that and we have great faith in our panel, and as I said, it's one man out another man in,” said O’Neill.

Asked about how close Flynn is to a comeback, O’Neill claimed that he isn’t far away and that there was a strong possibility that both he and Kelly would have been ready for the championship opener if it was on a week later, though the Bruce Springsteen concert in Croke Park next weekend ensured that the Lilywhites would be in action a week earlier.

“He's very close,” O’Neill said of Flynn.

“He has put in a huge shift of rehab, and there is a train of thought that you could say you could risk him, but we are not in the business of risking players’ health in either the short term or the long-term. Similarly with Niall, you could probably thank Bruce Springsteen for taking a week off the schedule. Without being cynical about it, they probably would be ready for the next week, but we’re certainly not going to risk it for Saturday.”