{"id":219644,"date":"2025-12-31T09:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/219644\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:38:09","slug":"blow-for-ireland-as-cullen-set-for-prolonged-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/219644\/","title":{"rendered":"Blow for Ireland as Cullen set for &#8216;prolonged&#8217; absence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Republic of Ireland have suffered a signifcant injury blow ahead of March&#8217;s World Cup play-offs after Burnley confirmed that midfielder Josh Cullen sustained a serious knee injury.<\/p>\n<p>Cullen, who is club captain at the Premier League side, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/sport\/soccer\/2025\/1227\/1550648-andrews-bees-soar-into-premier-league-top-10\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">suffered the setback in Saturday&#8217;s 0-0 draw against Everton<\/a> at Turf Moor.<\/p>\n<p>Burnley said that he will face a &#8220;prolonged&#8221; spell on the sidelines, with the prognosis ruling him out of the World Cup play-off semi-final against Czechia on 26 March in Prague.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old&#8217;s lengthy lay-off represents a huge blow to Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson&#8217;s plans, with Cullen having been a stalwart under the Icelandic coach and predecessor Stephen Kenny, amassing 47 senior caps to date.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Josh Cullen sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Saturday&#8217;s Premier League fixture against Everton,&#8221; Burnley said in a statement on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Clarets skipper injured his right knee early in the second half of the goalless draw at Turf Moor.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Scans on Monday confirmed Cullen sustained an ACL injury and he will undergo surgery.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Republic of Ireland international is now set for a prolonged period on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone at Burnley Football Club wishes Josh all the best for a successful and speedy recovery.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland have suffered a signifcant injury blow ahead of March&#8217;s World Cup play-offs after Burnley&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-219644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}