Savage was stretchered off, after receiving extensive medical assistance, in the Mourne men’s semi-final victory over Sligo on Sunday following a nasty challenge which resulted in opposition defender defender Nathan Mullen receiving a straight red card.
Savage was conscious leaving Croke Park before being transported to Beaumont Hospital for scans and his club Loughinisland revealed that he will go under the knife today – on what is also his 21st birthday.
“Good news in that our Oisín is on his way home from Dublin. Not so good news is that he will be up for surgery on his broken jaw tomorrow,” the Loughinisland club said in a Facebook post yesterday.
“Tomorrow also happens to be his 21st birthday. Thank you to everyone in Down GAA, Croke Park and all the medics for looking after him so well. Speedy recovery Oisín and we will keep the 21st celebrations on hold.”
One player which Laverty will have available to him for the decider on July 13, however, is Caolan Mooney with the 31-year-old leaving his injury nightmare behind to feature prominently in the closing stages against Sligo, despite featuring for Downpatrick two days before.
Down manager Conor Laverty. Photo: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
“Moons is a crazy one. Moons actually played minutes for his club on Friday night, so he did. He has been really struggling with injuries, trained in December, January time and was motoring really well,” Laverty said of a player who came out of retirement for the 2024 season.
“He came back from a tough injury with the cruciate but as all players coming back from that, particularly lads with that top-end speed, they are suspect to hamstring injuries then. We’ve been managing his load the past few weeks.
“He played a challenge game maybe two weeks ago, he played the first 20 minutes to try and get him back up to pace. It’s just trying to get that confidence back and get that spark back and coming down the straight when legs were getting tired, we just felt that his pace and decision-making on the ball would be vital.
“I’m just delighted for him because the rehab that he has done, he has been top class doing the rehab that was needed. Everything he has been asked to do, he has done it to the letter of the law.
“He’s probably coming to a stage of his career now where he was looking in saying, ‘is this realistic to get back?’ and hopefully that sparks him into life because he had a massive impact on that game.”
