St Patrick’s Athletic midfielder Rhys McCabe will be assessed ahead of potentially fiery clash with Waterford on Friday after being knocked out cold against Shamrock Rovers.
McCabe was forced off early in the second-half of the 1-0 defeat in Tallaght on Monday following an aerial clash, and that has rendered him a doubt to face Waterford, who are reeling after they were controversially dumped out of the Europa league with the Saints replacing them.
Pat’s boss Harry Kenny said: “Rhys, I think, had a little bit of concussion. But he’ll be alright.
“The doctor is after saying in four or five days he’ll be grand. He’s okay. He was knocked out for a few seconds.”
Monday’s narrow loss ended a three-game winning streak but Kenny is confident it won’t set Saints back in their pursuit of a European finish by right this season.
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“Even though we were beaten and I should be sick about it, I was delighted with the performance,” he said.
“I just hope that we perform like that for the rest of the season, because up to now we’ve been good and then we’ve dropped and then we’ve been good again.
“I'm glad to see the back of these Friday-Monday games as it's tough going and hard on the lads, every 48 hours.
“You don’t get time to plan but I'm not moaning about it as it's the same for everyone and you have to get on with it.
“We just need to get back at it. Rovers have a lot of good players. If you let them play, they’ll bloody well kill you.
“But we got in their faces well and we didn’t let them play out from the back, which is the way they want to. So that worked reasonably well for us on Monday.”
Chris Forrester replaced McCabe after his knockout blow and the skillful midfielder helped the Saints cause as they pushed for a late equaliser.
Saints fans have yet to see Forrester at his fluent best since returning to the club after spells with Peterborough and Aberdeen.
But Kenny said: “It has taken Chris a while. He has been through a lot in his personal life and we are going to wait for him, because he is a good player.”
Kenny is playing down ‘grudge match’ element of Friday’s tasty clash with Waterford having pinched their Europa League spot.
St Pat’s wrote to the FAI to highlight the fact Waterford FC - rather than the old Waterford United - are not yet three years in existence.
That’s a requirement of UEFA for any club to compete in Europe while there was also questions asked over whether the club had any outstanding creditors.
Kenny said: “I don't give too many thoughts about the whole thing. I'm just trying to win matches here.
“We certainly won't have needle about it. We weren't in Europe and now we are and we're delighted about it.
“There's certainly no needle from us and I don’t think there will be from them either. The players will focus on winning the football match and that's what counts.”
