Dubs must plan summer campaign without Jack McCaffrey

Sun, 6th March 2016

Dublin will have to plan for the defence of their Leinster and All-Ireland SFC defence without the stellar services of 2015 Footballer of the Year Jack McCaffrey.

The UCD medicine student will be headed to Africa during the early part of the summer and plans on travelling afterwards.

"At the moment, Jack won’t be with us for the championship," said Dublin manager Jim Gavin following Saturday night's victory over Cork.

"He’s a fourth year medical student in UCD. Jack will be heading off to Africa to get some volunteer work in a hospital there for the summer and then doing some travelling afterwards.

“We’ve known this for some time, we’ve given Jack time to reflect on it. He’s part of the big Dublin GAA family.

“He knows that we’re there for him whenever he wants to return back to play with the county and he’ll always be welcome back.”

Rory O'Carroll, the 2015 All Star full-back, announced earlier in season that he was moving to New Zealand - so before a ball is kicked this summer Dublin are down two of their starting defenders from 2015, both All Stars.