Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley confirms the worst as scan results return on key player
Shamrock Rovers are back in Europa Conference League action on Thursday night away to Rapid Vienna.
Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley has revealed that a scan on the injury suffered by Aaron McEneff last week has ended the midfielder’s season.
McEneff signalled to the bench midway through the second-half of last Thursday’s friendly against HJK Helsinki that he needed to come off - and he didn’t even wait for a break in play before heading towards the sideline.
McEneff, Bradley said after the game, felt his hamstring tighten as he went to pass the ball.
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“That was a strange one - he passed the ball and felt his hamstring tighten up. There was no contact, nothing, so that’s definitely a worry,” said the Rovers boss after the 2-0 reversal.
On Tuesday evening, ahead of Thursday’s Europa Conference League clash away to Rapid Vienna, Bradley signalled that the problem was worse than initially feared.
McEneff will now miss the game in Austria, as well as Rovers’ other remaining Europa Conference League matches against Boruc of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Premier League giants Chelsea.
“I don’t think we’ll see Aaron McEneff again this season,” said Bradley. “He came off last week against HJK, it didn’t look bad or feel bad, but the scan is telling us different.
“So it’s just been one of those seasons for Aaron, been stop/start and he came with a big injury from Australia so he’s been trying to play catch-up. The best decision now is just to shut him down and get ready for pre-season.”
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Danny Mandroiu and Sean Hoare will also miss the Rapid game, while striker Rory Gaffney is out until next season.
Bradley did have some better news, however, when he said: “Aaron Greene should be okay, he’s a bit sore but should be fine.
“It may be a bit early for Graham Burke, we’ll see. He’ll train in Vienna and we’ll see how he is then.”
Rovers have already secured seven points from their opening three games and are in a strong position to qualify for the knockouts in January.
Their opponents on Thursday, however, have a 100 percent record so far in the Europa Conference League and Bradley said: “It’s a very difficult game, there’s no doubt about that.
“Rapid is a big club, a big team with a big tradition. We know they have some really good players when you watch them, so we know it’s a difficult game.
“But we’ve played a lot of top teams, so we’ll have no fear and we’ll go with a gameplan.
“Obviously we have to respect what they’re good at but at the same time, when we get our times in the game, we’ll see can we hurt them and that will be the aim.”
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