Ian Morris confirms Covid-19 scare in Shels camp as Jack McCarthy stars on his senior League of Ireland debut

Jack McCarthy in action for Shelbourne

Jack McCarthy in action for Shelbourne Credit: Paul Dolan (ETPhotos)

Ian Morris confirmed that Shelbourne had to grapple with a Covid-19 scare in the camp this week prior to their league game against UCD on Friday.

While Morris confirmed reports there had been cases in his squad, the 2019 First Division winning manager did not offer any details to the extent of how his squad was impacted.

“We had cases, and we had to look through close contacts,” Morris said on Friday night. It has been a long week, and we only found out who was available yesterday [Thursday].

"The lads who were playing tonight were all available. I won’t be going into details, but they weren’t available because we were told by the FAI and the HSE.”

He later added: “Most will be back next week. Our doctor Tim has been fantastic as has Keith [Browne], our physio.

“They’ve looked after the medical side of things, and are linked in with the FAI, HSE and Public Health.

“They’ll [the missing players] have to be tested and re-tested so we should have bodies back by next week ready for Galway.”

While Shels’ preparations were hampered by Covid-19 this week, it offered an opportunity of sorts to under-19 ‘keeper Jack McCarthy.

The Skerries native produced a player of the match display to earn his side a point, and a memorable clean sheet in the process, while also lapping up the applause from a strong away support.

“He was fantastic,” Morris said. “We have our under-19s in training with us every week and they’d be used to it.



“They know what we ask for and know the standards and he delivered for us.

“I’m thrilled for him, and the lads gave him a fantastic reception for him in the changing room, so I’m delighted for him.”

The result also maintained Shels’ unbeaten league record, and also, incredibly stretched their lead at the top of the First Division table following defeats to both Treaty and Galway United respectively.

“We just have to keep our foot on the gas. We showed the quality that we had tonight right through the squad.

“You can talk about Covid and all, but the amount of Irish underage internationals we have in there, lads who have been in England and lads who have played in the Premier Division.

“They’ve won leagues and cups. There’s good quality in there.



“I’m not one for making excuses. People get sick or injured in football all the time. But we put a squad out there that I was more than happy with.

“I felt really confident before the game that we would win, and during the game I thought we would have won it.

“I’m a little bit disappointed we didn’t because our performance was really good.”

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