Mark Coleman’s injury woes have carried into 2024 but it appears the former All-Star will have a chance of playing a role in Cork's 2024 Championship after all.
The Irish Examiner broke the news that Coleman sustained the injury while Pat Ryan’s side were away for the weekend for a training camp in Dingle as the Rebels ramped up their training prep for the final two group games of the National Hurling League against Offaly and Wexford.
After initial reports appeared to rule Coleman out for the rest of Cork's 2024 season, there are hopes this evening that Coleman could feature when the Rebels play Waterford in their Munster round robin opener on 21 April.
Either way, you would have to feel sorry for Coleman as last weekend's league win over Waterford was his first competitive start for Cork since Cork’s All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Galway in 2022, his first league appearance came when his side lost to Kilkenny in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh last month.
The Blarney man missed all of the 2023 season due to a knee injury. After impressing in the Cork intermediate hurling championship for his club, Coleman was hoping to regain the form that saw him winning an All-Star in 2017.
The timing of this injury doesn’t help Ryan with the pressure already mounting as they only secured their first league win of the campaign against the Déise; the manager and his players know that the public won't take another year without silverware, let alone not progressing out of the Munster championship for the second year in a row.
Hopefully, Sunday evening's reports will prove accurate, and the sideline cut wizard will be front and centre once again grass a championship game for the first time in two years.
