{"id":219781,"date":"2025-12-31T11:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/219781\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T11:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:32:10","slug":"josh-cullen-ruled-out-of-irelands-world-cup-playoffs-with-acl-injury-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/219781\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Cullen ruled out of Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoffs with ACL injury \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Cullen<\/a> has been ruled out of the Republic of Ireland\u2019s<\/a> World Cup<\/a> playoffs at the end of March with confirmation that the Burnley midfielder suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Everton on December 27th.<\/p>\n

Heimir Halgr\u00edmsson\u2019s take on the Czech Republic in Prague on March 26th. Should Ireland progress, they will play either Denmark or North Macedonia at the Aviva Stadium on March 31st in a decider to qualify for North America 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cACLs are normally around about nine months, so that\u2019s probably where Josh will be,\u201d said Scott Parker, the Burnley manager, who confirmed that the club could enter the January transfer market to replace their 29-year-old captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we certainly probably need to look at because Josh is a huge loss to us. It\u2019s not only what he gives us on the pitch, what we\u2019ve seen throughout this year \u2013 he\u2019s probably one of our best performers \u2013 but to lose him on the pitch as well as off it, and what he gives us is a big loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cullen has been a mainstay in the Ireland team since 2021, accumulating 47 caps from the base of midfield. When he was suspended for the 1-0 victory over Armenia in Dublin last October, Will Smallbone and Jayson Molumby combined in midfield.<\/p>\n

Smallbone is still recovering from a serious hamstring issue, while Bristol City midfielder Jason Knight just returned from an injury layoff.<\/p>\n

The FAI confirmed that Cullen is to undergo surgery before adding \u201cwe are with you every step of the way Josh\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ireland rugby international Dan Sheehan recently returned from an ACL injury after just six months, but in other instances recovery can take 12 months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Cullen has been ruled out of the Republic of Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoffs at the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4700,61,60,50019,43,1842],"class_list":["post-219781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-josh-cullen","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219781","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=219781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}