Injuries affected Down last year – Poland

Mark Poland, Down

Rather than simply brand it as second season syndrome, Down forward Mark Poland believes that the extensive casualty list with which the Down management team had to contend was the main reason for their poor return last season, one which ended with defeat in the All-Ireland qualifiers at the hands of Cork.

“I think a lot of it has to be put down to injuries. Having got to the All-Ireland final, we started back a bit later than we otherwise would have done.

“Other teams had maybe that bit of an advantage, and maybe we didn’t get the sort of work done which might have helped to prevent those sorts of injuries later in the year.

“We were missing a lot of key players at key times, and with the small pick that we have, you can’t afford to be losing the calibre of players who we were forced to play without.

“We had others who, fair play to them, battled on through niggly injuries, but you can’t be doing that in the frantic pace of the Championship because you get found out.”

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