Jack Byrne out for rest of season as Alan Mannus retirement confirmed

Jack Byrne and Alan Mannus

Jack Byrne and Alan Mannus Credit: Peter Fitzpatrick (ETPhotos)

Hoops Head Coach Stephen Bradley confirmed that Jack Byrne has had an operation and will miss out on Shamrock Rovers’ final four games of the season.

With Byrne out of contract at the end of the campaign, it may mean the Ireland international has played his final game for the Hoops.

The news of Alan Mannus’ retirement was also confirmed on Thursday by Bradley. The 41-old-year goalkeeper made a u-turn to play again in 2023 having talked about retirement the previous year.

However, Bradley confirmed there won’t be one more year for Mannus who is set to hang up his gloves after Rovers’ final game of the season.

“Jack Byrne has just had an operation so he’ll be out for the rest of the season,” said Bradley speaking to shamrockrovers.ie on Thursday ahead of Rovers’ home game against Drogheda United.

“He came through the Shels game ok, but he felt the injury again in training so we sent him back to London and the surgeon wasn’t happy, so they’ve operated on him.”

The Rovers boss praised Byrne for doing all he could to help the Hoops get over the line in the title race.

“To be fair to Jack, he did everything possible to get back on the pitch, most other players might have opted for the operation very early on. But Jack was adamant he wanted to get back on the pitch and help the team even though he knew in his heart that he wasn’t 100%.

“With a player of Jack’s quality you give him every opportunity to do that, but it got to a point he just couldn’t function properly so unfortunately he’s now out for the last games.”

Alan Mannus



Meanwhile goalkeeper Alan Mannus will bring the end on a 20 year career in the next fortnight. He signs off with Rovers club record of clean sheets in the league and all competitions from his nine seasons played at the club across two spells.

Mannus confirmed that he will retire in a lengthy interview that is set to be published in the Rovers match programme for Friday’s home game against Drogheda United.

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile