KERRY’S NEW ADDITION Stefan Okunbor has emerged as a fresh injury concern after damaging his shoulder in a club game yesterday.
Okunbor, who only rejoined the Kerry ranks this season after playing in the AFL for the last few years, was stretchered off near the end of his club Na Gaeil’s defeat in the All-Ireland intermediate football championship.
Na Gaeil, the 2020 junior champions, lost out 2-6 to 0-7 to Derry’s Steelstown Brian Ógs at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Mayo. Okunbor sustained the injury during the passage of play that lead to Steelstown being awarded the late penalty, which Cahir McMonagle fired to the net to clinch success for the Ulster champions.
Okunbor was taken off after a lengthy delay, in a setback to a player who had been gearing up for a busy 2022 campaign. This month has seen him in action for the Kerry senior side in the McGrath Cup and for UL in the Sigerson Cup.
He brought his three-year spell with AFL club Geelong to a close last September, returning to Ireland and helping Na Gaeil win county and Munster honours, while also playing for divisional team St Brendan’s in the Kerry senior championship.
Kerry boss Jack O’Connor, who begins his third spell in charge with today’s league encounter against Kildare in Newbridge, had drafted Okunbor into his squad, linking up again with a player who starred for him at U20 level in 2018.
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