Carroll suffers ankle break

Meath's hopes of securing promotion from NFL Div 3 suffered a major blow at training last night as talented Ballinabrackey player Damien Carroll suffered a broken ankle. The full extent of the injury to Carroll and the circumstances as to how it happened are unclear, but it is likely that the centre-forward will face a minimum of six weeks on the sidelines and may even miss the entire league and championship campaign. The injury news is another major blow for manager Mick O'Dowd because Carroll had been one of his brightest performers in the four games played this year, but his absence from an already bereft Meath attack will cause the Meath manager more headaches. O'Dowd is already without Stephen Bray and Cian Ward, but their return from injury may have to be expedited as Meath seek to bounce back from Sunday's humbling loss to Monaghan by 12 points. It is also rumoured that there will be wholesale changes to the Meath line-up for Sunday's crucial NFL Div 3 game with O'Dowd and his management team taking drastic action to send a signal to their players that such a sub-par performance as produced against Monaghan will not be tolerated again.