Down’s Kevin McKernan is set for a spell on the sidelines having sustained an ankle injury while playing for his club, Burren

DOWN star Kevin McKernan sustained ankle ligament damage in a club match for Burren on Monday but his manager Sean Ward has every confidence in a return to full fitness.

A scan allayed fears of a break following the incident in a 3-15 to 0-5 win against Ballymartin, but nonetheless McKernan is set for a spell on the sidelines.

“He’d gone short for a routine sideline ball and to be fair to the Ballymartin lad there was no malice in it, maybe a push in the back,” said Ward.

“Kevin had jumped for the ball and they got a bit muddled up and unfortunately he landed on that particular ankle and it went underneath him.

“He was in a lot of pain and it didn’t look good at the time. There was fear it was a cruciate as the knee seemed to go as well.

“The knee’s fine, there’s a lot of swelling on the ankle though – we got him scanned yesterday morning as quick as we could and there’s no sign of any break but there’s ligament damage.

He continued: “We’re basically in the early stages, he’s icing it and it’ll probably take a week or so for that to settle, and then we’ll be trying to get him moving between our physio and the county guys.”

Ward admits he doesn’t know for certain when McKernan will make his return to club and county duty, but he assures that the Down stalwart will leave ’no stone unturned’ in his recovery.

“Obviously from a club point of view, I would’ve envisioned having our county guys until about two or three weeks from the Monaghan game [Down’s Ulster Championship opener]. I don’t see him taking part in those club games.

“You won’t get anyone more conscientious in terms of his preparation than Kevin.

“These things happen and he’ll get himself back in shape, there’ll be no stone left unturned.

“I don’t envision him losing much in terms of fitness and he’s mentally very strong.”