Armagh's Oisín O'Neill ready to make up for lost time after injury hell

When it comes to making up for lost time, Armagh's Oisín O'Neill has a lot of road ahead of him.

One statistic jumps out a mile when summarising his career to date. The Crossmaglen man is preparing for his eighth season with the Orchard County yet has only made five championship starts.

Ankles, quads, both Achilles - he’s had his fair share of injury ills to contend with, but over the last few months he has found that chink of light and he is looking forward to another chance to really make his mark for Kieran McGeeney’s side next season.

"In and around the Ulster final I was able to join in with team training with Armagh. I hadn’t enough work done to be in consideration for anything in Armagh’s season but thankfully since Armagh were put out, I’ve been able to train every night with Cross.

"I haven’t missed a session or a game yet, it’s been great to get the boots on and get back at it, doing what I love."

"The best part of two years [out], I suppose after the club championship final in 2021," he said of his time missed.

"I picked up a quad injury and coming back from that there I started having problems with my Achilles. Two Achilles surgeries later and I eventually got back.

"I’ve had surgery on both my Achilles, left and right. After having one your other side starts to compensate a little bit more but hopefully it’s behind me now.

"Mine was probably more gradual, I didn’t actually rupture it like you would see some people do. I tore it and then I was trying to play on and manage it, but I was making it worse.

"I ended up with a significant enough injury then and it was treated like an Achilles rupture in terms of the surgery and the recuperation of it."

While his younger brother Rian ensured that the O’Neill name was firmly