Mayo's Seamus O'Shea (pictured here with Derry's Fergal McEldowney).
O’Shea is Mayo’s big worry
Mayo midfielder faces into new fitness battle
Mike Finnerty
BREAFFY midfielder Seamus O’Shea is Mayo’s only major injury worry ahead of the National Football League Final against Cork at Croke Park on Sunday, April 25.
O’Shea sustained a ‘knock to the foot’ during the second half of last weekend’s match against Cork and also took a heavy blow to the head after colliding with an opponent.
“Seamus did get a pretty bad knock to the foot and we initially thought it might need an x-ray,” John O’Mahony told The Mayo News. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case now and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens during the week. Apart from that, and Donal Vaughan getting a bang on the leg, everybody else seems to have come through okay.”
It now seems certain that Ronan McGarrity, Enda Varley and Aidan Kilcoyne will all be available for selection for Mayo’s second NFL final in four seasons. However, Keith Higgins’ participation remains uncertain.
“We’re monitoring Keith’s progress but we’re just not sure yet,” explained O’Mahony. “We’ll know more by next weekend but it’s just too early to say.
“We could have risked Ronan last Sunday but decided not to,” he added. “Enda did a fitness test on Saturday evening but his hamstring was pinching a little bit so we decided not to risk him. And Aidan is hoping to get the all-clear from his specialist today (Monday).”
Meanwhile, a full round of Mayo club league matches have been fixed for next Sunday afternoon. There had been some speculation that the second round games would be postponed in light of Mayo’s qualification for the league final a week later.
However, the Mayo manager (who will see his players next Saturday for a training session) was pragmatic about them going into action on Sunday.
“You’d prefer if players weren’t playing in club matches but that’s the nature of things. I didn’t make any request [to the County Board] to call games off, that’s not something that I get involved in. It’s not ideal but we just have to get on with it.”
He also confirmed that, despite media reports last week, Belmullet’s Billy Padden had not rejoined the Mayo squad. “We’re planning for the future and the championship panel isn’t picked yet. Billy was in training with us a couple of times but he’s not part of our league panel and wasn’t with us in Cork last weekend.”
Elsewhere, the GAA confirmed yesterday (Monday) that Mayo’s game against Cork will be played at 4pm on Sunday week at Croke Park. It will be preceded by the Division 2 final between Down and Armagh.
