Turner moves to Limerick on loan

Limerick’s newest signing Ian Turner says he is “raring to go” having endured a “frustrating” lack of game-time at Cork City, after completing his loan move to the club on Friday morning.

The former Wilton United youngster joined up with the Superblues for training on Thursday morning and will spend the remainder of the season on Shannonside.

Turner, 25, progressed from Cork’s youth ranks into the senior side in 2009 and was part of their First Division winning team of 2011.

He will wear squad No6, which had been left vacated this season, and having made just three substitute appearances this term, he is keen to get back to playing regularly.

With Cork in flying form since the opening night of the season, where he was serving a suspension, Turner has struggled to break into a team where he enjoyed 51 league appearances, scoring five goals, over the previous two campaigns.

And speaking after signing, Turner told LimerickFC.ie: “I’m delighted to be here. It has been a frustrating season for me so far, so to come here and be able to get game-time is very good.

“It has been frustrating for me back in Cork because I haven’t played as much as I’d have liked to. At this stage of my career, it’s about playing games and Limerick gave me the opportunity to do that and I’m very grateful for that.

“I played 30-odd games last year and around 25 the year before. This year was a big change where I wasn’t involved at all having been involved for the past three or four years.

“Once I stopped getting games, I was always looking to play. An opportunity came up here and I was glad to take it.

“I was suspended for the first game of the season which didn’t help. All the way through pre-season, that was in the back of my head.

“In fairness, the team were superb the whole way through and went on a really, really good unbeaten run, and even when they did lose two games, they bounced back and won six on the trot.

“It was frustrating because I felt I could have added to the team, but it wasn’t to be and here we are.

“I’m looking to get my match fitness back up, get back into scoring goals and creating goals and helping Limerick to finish as high as possible.

“It’s a stage where we need to take every game week-by-week and try to win every game as we can. Fifth is probably looking like the highest we can finish but you never know with this league.

“Anybody can beat anybody and if you can go on a good run, you can finish even higher up the table.”

Asked if he was worried about switching Munster rivals, Turner added: “No, I don’t think so! I might get a bit of stick from the Cork fans over it but that’s football!”

Turner – pending FAI clearance – goes straight into the squad for Friday night’s game against Bohemians at Thomond Park, which is the club’s 2,000th League game.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Ian said. “Like I said, it has been really frustrating for me not playing in the last four or five months. I’m just raring to go now and I’m buzzing for it.

“I played in Thomond twice last year and was on the bench this year but wasn’t involved. For me, it was always a very good place to play; a big pitch which suits me and my game. I’m really looking forward to getting out there now.

“I settled in well at training on Thursday. The lads are all really nice guys. There was a good bit of banter flying around. Obviously, I knew Duggy (Shane Duggan) from before but all the lads were very welcoming and I appreciated that.”