John Cleary has taken over as Cork football boss after Keith Ricken was forced to step aside for the rest of the season due to health reasons.
Cork GAA have confirmed that Ricken won’t be involved “for the foreseeable future.”
Former Cork double All-Ireland winning player Cleary will take over as interim manager, just three and a half weeks’ out from the crunch Munster semi-final encounter with Kerry.
Cleary was already football coach in Ricken’s set-up.
He managed Cork to the 2007 and 2009 All-Ireland under-21 titles and has been linked with the senior post in the past.
The Castlehaven man has an incredible managerial record at underage level, winning eight Munster under-21 crowns, while he also led his club to back to back Cork Senior Championships (2012/13).
Ricken guided Cork to the 2019 All-Ireland under-20 football title before taking the senior reins at the end of 2021.
Cork survived in Division 2 after a dramatic final day win over Offaly in Tullamore.
The venue for the Cork/Kerry clash is still up in the air with the Rebel players and management insisting they won’t travel to Killarney after the tie was moved out of Pairc Ui Rinn with Pairc Ui Chaoimh unavailable.
Playing the game at Semple Stadium has been mooted as a potential compromise.
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