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Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Bradley is looking to learn more about his rising stars in tomorrow’s Europa League tie with Ferencvaros but has revealed the club belief that Covid 19 has prevented another talent from really announcing himself this year.
onan Noonan (19) made his first team Rovers debut last summer and was involved in pre-season this term before dropping off the radar and Bradley said today that the reason is that the promising midfielder has struggled with his cardiovascular health since a second bout of Covid and is currently not allowed to train.
Teenagers Justin Ferizaj and Gideon Tetteh were involved off the bench in last week’s 4-0 first leg defeat in Hungary, while Aidomo Emakhu has established himself as a member of the squad and Bradley expected Noonan to be in that category this term.
Instead, medics are trying to get to the bottom of an issue that has kept Noonan off the scene since the spring.
“I’m a bit gutted about Conan Noonan to be honest. He would have played a big part for us this year but he hasn’t been able to train for four or five months.
“After Covid, he’s had problems with his heart, irregular heartbeats, getting dizzy. He’s not allowed train with us at the moment. Basically, he’s walking and getting checked by the doc every second week,” said Bradley, who spoke of how tough it has been for Noonan.
“Yeah it is and he’s such a good kid and someone we felt this year would make a real contribution, who I felt could have been the standout young player in the country, he has that much ability. It’s just really frustrating that he hasn’t been able to show that.”
Bradley stressed there has been no diagnosis of long Covid.
“They don’t want to diagnose anything yet,” he said. “They just want to get to the bottom of it but he’s had Covid twice and he just hasn’t been able to get himself right after the last dose.
“We just have to go with the doctors. We thought he was about to train six weeks ago and literally jogged and his heartrate and blood pressure went through the roof so we took him out again. In terms of young lads, he’s one who we thought would have been right there but unfortunately it’s just knocked him a bit.”
Bradley has conceded that Rovers have no realistic hope of turning around their Europa League tie and will instead end up in the Europa Conference League.
Sunday’s FAI Cup tie with Drogheda is therefore more important in the bigger picture of the week although he is keen for his side to give a good account of themselves with over 6,000 tickets sold for the Ferencvaros return.
The plus side of the first leg was how his young subs responded to a pressure situation. Tetteh and Ferizaj are both just 17.
“Gideon last week when he came on showed me that he’s much further on than I felt which is brilliant for me because you know you can trust him. It’s now about feeding him in at the right times and when the time is right, let him go and earn his stripes, and it’s very similar with Justin,” said Bradley.
“Games like last week and games in general are great for them because sometimes you think they’re 12 months and they’re only a few weeks away and sometimes you think they’re a few weeks away when actually they’re 18 months. It’s about finding that balance.”
Ferencvaros are flying into Shannon after being unable to get into Dublin Airport at the time that suited them, an issue that has caused problems for both Irish and visiting clubs this year.
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