Cork players were getting sick in dressing room before Dublin match – Darragh Fitzgibbon

The Charleville man explained how a bug had swept through the camp before the Semple Stadium clash and disrupted their preparations, ruling Rob Downey out and hitting the likes of star forward Alan Connolly.

Fitzgibbon said a number of the squad who took to the field in Thurles had been struggling.

“That was a thing that kind of went under the radar last Saturday,” Fitzgibbon said as he was named PwC GAA/GPA Hurler of the Month for May.

“There was a bug in our camp and obviously Rob couldn’t play. But there were a couple of other guys in the dressing room who were actually getting sick before the match. A couple of guys had been up all night as well.

​“It was testament to the players who were able to play and who stepped in and did a job to the best of their abilities. That made the result pleasing as well because it was just a matter of trying to win the game and get on to the next one.

“Alan was feeling unwell too. Alan was probably feeling unwell even before the Offaly game. He’s had a bit of a rough run of it. A lot has been made by some people of Alan’s last couple of performances but it won’t affect him. He’s another guy who leaves outside noise on the outside. He backs himself and we all back him. We know he’ll be fit and firing come Sunday week.”

Cork turn their attentions to Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park, hoping for a repeat of their rousing win in the Munster round-robin series.

Manager Pay Ryan pushed their return to training back by 24 hours to help his players recover from their Dublin exertions and to try prevent any further spread of the bug with Fitzgibbon reporting that they expect to have a clean bill of health by Sunday week.

“Everyone was back in training. We just took an extra night off training just to give everyone a bit of time away from each other, trying to not let it spread through the camp.

“It’s just one of those things that could happen to anybody. It was kind of good in the way we dealt with it.

“Luke Meade was one of the guys who was sick but he just came in and fitted in seamlessly and Ciarán Joyce moved back and performed his role as well. They’re all kind of things that might go under the radar and it’s stuff that every camp tries to deal with, so it was just pleasing the way we dealt with it.”