Kildare's Kevin Feely was the subject of an on-field concussion test just over three minutes into the second half against Dublin at Croke Park on Saturday night.
It was the result of an incident for which Michael Darragh Macauley was shown a yellow card by referee Conor Lane. As the Kildare midfielder knelt on the turf over the ball, Macauley's knee collided with Feely's head.
Speaking after the game, Kildare manager Cian O'Neill, quoted by Kildare Now, suggested that it had been a cynical collision on the part of Dublin and one which had a major impact on the game.
There’s obviously a very strong correlation between when Kevin is commanding midfield and when we’re performing strongly in games.
It was quite cynical in terms of what happened. The impact was to his head when he was on the ground – maybe that’s what the best teams do better than what we do. It’s something we have to look at. When he got injured we went out of the game in midfield and that’s when the goals came.
Feely played on for a further 22 minutes before being substituted. Though, that was the result of a calf injury rather than the earlier collision.
"To be fair, it wasn’t his head, his calf was tightening. We moved him inside to see if we could get anything out of that. Ultimately he wasn’t feeling good so we took him off. But you’re right, he’s such a big player for us. Every team has them, and it did impact us today unfortunately."
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Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
