Finn Harps suffer Conor Tourish injury blow

Finn Harps have been dealt a blow with the news that Conor Tourish is set for several weeks on the sidelines.

Tourish has suffered a hamstring injury that looks likely to keep him out until after the mid-season break in June.

The Letterkenny man picked up the ailment in the closing stages of the 3-1 loss in Cobh and missed Friday’s 2-0 defeat by Treaty United in Ballybofey.

“Conor is more long-term,” Harps manager Kevin McHugh confirmed. “We won’t be sure for another week or so, but I imagine it will be after the break before he’s back.

“It’s one of those ones where we took him to Cobh, we chanced him in the two games (v Dundalk and Cobh) last week and he unfortunately got a wee tweak in the last three or four minutes. Conor is a big loss.”

Mikey Place missed Friday’s game, but McHugh is confident that he could be back to face Athlone on Friday night, while Dara McGuinness, kept to a substitute’s role against Treaty, is expected to be in a stronger position.

Joel Thompson had to be helped off in the closing stages on Friday, but it seemed that cramp was the extent of the damage.

McHugh said: “Thankfully a few of them are just cramped. They maxed themselves out. We’ll assess that over the weekend.”

The Harps boss also hailed the efforts of Max Hutchison, who wore a protective face mask to play in the game.

McHugh said: “I have to give Max huge credit. He had his nose reset on Monday evening. 

“He came into training on Tuesday and we kept him out of the contact stuff. 

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“He wanted to play and that showed bravery. He had his nose reset and he’s coming out there to head balls - that takes guts.”