Wallace out for year

Meath’s NFL Div 2, Leinster SFC and All-Ireland aspirations were dealt a severe blow this morning with the confirmation of the news that Eamon Wallace has torn the cruciate ligament in his right knee and will be out of action for at least nine months.
Wallace received the injury during the early stages of last Wednesday’s 1-13 to 0-10 Leinster u-21 FC quarter-final replay victory over Louth and while initial fears weren’t too serious it has since transpired that the Ratoath flyer has torn his cruciate.
Wallace joins an illustrious list of top class inter-county players who face the year on the sidelines as Kerry’s Colm Cooper and Dublin’s Ciaran Kilkenny as also out of action for 2014.
Wallace burst onto the Meath senior team last year as a first half substitute for Michael Newman in the NFL Div 3 win over Roscommon and made an immediate impact setting up Graham Reilly for a goal.
He subsequently started every game for the remainder of the year and scored in every game. He ended the season on a high with a 1-3 haul in the All-Ireland SFc qualifier against Tyrone in croke PArk and was earmarked as a potential Allstar candidate.
Wallace made nine appearances in 2013, scoring 1-13, while this year his time on the field has been managed by senior manager Mick O’Dowd with the Ratoath man involved in the Sigerson Cup finals weekend with NUI Maynooth and also a key player for the Meath u-21 side.
The cruciate knee injury is becoming an increasingly common problem amongst GAA players and Wallace will be able to draw on the experience of fellow player Brian Meade who has just recovered from a similar problem and selector Trevor Giles who suffered the injury in 1998.

 

 

Fergal Lynch