A very bad few days just got worse and worse for Cork's dual star Sean O hAilpin (left) as the knee injury that kept him out of yesterday's clash after a car accident was diagnosed as a patellar tendon injury. O hAilpin will be out for the year at the very least.

Further details of the circumstances of the crash emerged over the weekend. O hAilpin was in Dublin on Thursday attending a Guinness publicity event for the hurling championship. He drove back to Cork via Nenagh, where he visited friends, before setting back out on the road for Cork. His car was in a collision with another vehicle near Templemore, and O hAilpin was taken back to Nenagh hospital where he stayed overnight. He was transferred to Cork university hospital on Friday where his knee was operated on.

As Cork selector Pat Horgan said on Saturday's RTE radio sport, O hAilpin was lucky that the injuries weren't worse - and indeed that the other people in the crash were okay.

However, the seriousness of the injury in terms of his sporting career emerged when it was compared to the injury that has already kept Brazilian and Inter Milan star Ronaldo out of soccer for 18 months.

Irish Times medical correspondent, Dr Muiris Houston has this to say about the injury and the road to recovery: "The patella or kneecap sits in front of the knee joint. It is joined to the thigh bone by the quadriceps tendon, the main muscle in the front of the thigh. The kneecap is attached below the knee to the main bone of the lower leg by the patellar ligament.

"A traumatic rupture of either attachment - such as from a car accident - requires surgery to stitch the tendon/ligament back into place on the bone. Holes are drilled into the patella and heavy wire or sutures used to reconstitute the link between soft tissue and bone.

"The leg is then immobilised in plaster for a period of six weeks.

"A graduated exercise programme will be prescribed once the injury is ready for mobilization. An injury such as Sean Og's carries a risk of early onset arthritis of the knee."

All Gaelic games supporters will wish O hAilpin the speediest of recoveries.