Cillian O’Connor passed fit for Mayo final

Mixed news for Ballintubber


Mike Finnerty

STAR Ballintubber forward Cillian O’Connor ‘will be fine’ and fit to play in next Sunday’s Mayo SFC Final against Castlebar Mitchels, according to his manager Peter Ford.
O’Connor injured his Achilles tendon in a training session with the Ireland International Rules squad ten days ago and sat out Ballintubber’s Mayo Senior League win over Garrymore last Friday evening.
However, speaking to The Mayo News last night, Ford said that the Mayo attacker ‘would be okay’ to line out next weekend.
Unfortunately, Gary Loftus will miss Ballintubber’s fourth final in five years after breaking his collar-bone in that game on Friday.
“Cillian will be fine, his Achilles tendon was bothering him but he’ll be okay,” explained Ballintubber’s joint manager. “But Gary is out. He’s gutted. But he was in with us on Saturday and Sunday and I’m sure he’ll bounce back.”
As a former Castlebar Mitchels manager, Ford is well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of Ballintubber’s opponents. However, he is concentrating on his own team and says he’s happy with how preparations have gone.
“We’re in a good place. The Knockmore game wasn’t ideal in that it was too easy but we’ve trained well since. We had a good game last Friday evening as well and got a lot of good work done over the weekend.
“It would be huge to win the County Final. What’s happened in the past is in the past. We’re enjoying ourselves this year, we’ve won 23 or 24 games, drawn one, and lost one. There’s a great buzz in the club and at training. There’s a feelgood factor around the place.”
The Ballinrobe native also expressed surprise that some observers were expecting Sunday’s game to be a tight, defensive, low-scoring affair.
“We’re two good football teams, so I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t a good game. Both teams have very good forwards, we have three county forwards, so we’ll want them staying up front, and we’ll want them to score.
“We’re aiming to start as quickly as we can, and we’re going to throw everything at it.”