KEVIN McSTAY revealed Diarmuid O’Connor after suffering an injury in Mayo’s defeat to Galway.
The Ballintubber man was introduced on 47 minutes in Castlebar, only to be forced off with a shoulder injury after a tackle from Cillian Ó Curraoin.
Speaking after the game, Mayo manager McStay revealed O’Connor had been taken to hospital after the game.
And he hit out at the tackle itself, insisting the Galway man should have been shown a black card.
He said: “We’re a bit sore about it.
“Diarmuid won the ball and popped it to a Mayo lad and was hit late and that’s a black card – minimum, but nothing was done.
“You spend all winter carefully rehabbing him so that he’ll be fit for the spring and this happens.
“He’s a top player, an All-Star and he’s off to hospital.
“We’re sore about it, but we’re not pointing the finger at the ref, he was fine.”
If the loss of O’Connor was not bad enough, the Tribesmen went on to beat Mayo 0-26 to 0-16.
However, manager Padraic Joyce insisted he won’t be getting carried away by the result that saw his side kick eight two-pointers.
Joyce said: “I’m happy with the performance and that led to the victory so, overall, I’m very happy.
“We did OK in the first half and we felt that we controlled a lot of the play.
“But we gave Mayo six or seven turnovers that led to scores. We’re not going to get carried away.
“It was February 2 today and there’s a long way to go.
“But it’s nice to have four points out of four. Over the years we probably would have been seen as a team that’s nice to play against.
“But we’re trying to bring some physicality on to the pitch.
“We have a lot of men over 6ft and they got stuck in today, which is pleasing.”
TALE OF TWO HALVES
A crowd of 12,291 turned up at MacHale Park and while there was very little between the teams in the first half, it was a different story in the second period.
Galway played the game on their terms while McStay’s side struggled to get to grips with their opponents.
Jack Coyne, Jack Carney, Jordan Flynn, Aidan O’Shea and Tommy Conroy were again conspicuous by their absence.
McStay conceded: “There’s no getting away from the fact that we were well off Galway. It was their day.”
Mayo won the corresponding fixture last year by a commanding 2-12 to 0-10 margin at Pearse Stadium.
But yesterday’s defeat was a sobering one.
McStay added: “We had a good feeling this time last year but we have to suck it up and take it on the chin. They were the better team.
“I’m going to take some comfort from the fact that the season is still well ahead of us.”
